Abheek Barman passes away: His interests ranged from physics, art, literature to Northeast

Abheek Barman, till recently Consulting Editor with the Economic Times, passed away yesterday. He had held senior editorial positions in this newspaper, the Times of India and ET Now, as also with NDTV Profit. He joined ET’s editorial team in 1994. While Abheek learned economics at Presidency, Kolkata and Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, his interests went far beyond the confines of the discipline. Arguably, he was the most widely read journalist, whose interests ranged from physics, through art, film and literature to the history of the Northeast (his wife Maitreyi Handique hails from Assam).

Abheek was a prolific writer, too. He wrote effortlessly and with great lucidity and clarity, on politics, the markets, the odd Nobel prize in economics, government policy, geopolitics and macroeconomics. Having spent most of his career writing editorials, his style had to be concise, yet he managed to bring elegance and humour to whatever he wrote.

At one stage, Abheek regularly wrote humorous pieces for ET’s Sunday edition. His prodigious familiarity with the literary canons of Bengal and of the West offered him an unmatched array of sources to tap and animate.


Abheek was a passionate football fan, an unabashed fan of Lionel Messi. He followed other sports, too, but football was his first love, and the enthusiasm rubbed off on his son, who plays the game, instead of merely watching it and arguing about it.

Abheek was passionate about things. He was the ultimate argumentative Indian and could hold forth for hours. Moderation was not a strong point, whether in political opinion, hospitality (he was an admirable cook, albeit only of fish and mutton), likes, dislikes, food or drink.