Joyous in Santiniketan

The award of the Nobel Prize for Amartya Sen has made it a proud moment for his aged mother and for Santiniketan, where he was born and spent his early years.

KALYAN CHAUDHURI
in Santiniketan

THERE is a ceaseless flow of visitors to Pratichi, a house of moderate size in Sripalli at Santiniketan, and Amita Sen, the octogenarian mother of the Nobel laureate, cheerfully receives them, whatever the time of day. Anyone who comes calling finds a welcome.

Amita Sen recalls that when her son "Bablu", as she calls Amartya Sen, telephoned her at 6 a.m. on October 14 to convey the news, her reaction was one of disbelief. She told him: "It is difficult for me to believe it. For years now, people have been telling me that you are getting it. I won't believe it until I see it in print." Amartya Sen laughed and reassured her that this time it was for real.

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In her home in Sripalli at Santiniketan, Amartya Sen's mother Amita Sen with young visitors who came to greet her following the announcement of the award.

It was a proud moment not only for the 87-year-old mother, but for Santiniketan, where Amartya Sen was born. It was Santiniketan's founder Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, who christened Amita Sen's son Amartya when he was three months old. Amita recalled: "Gurudev used to tell us to be careful while spelling Amartya's name. He would say: 'Amita, I have given him an extremely uncommon name. Unless you are careful about the spelling, the meaning will change."'

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Pratichi, Sen's residence on the Visva-Bharati campus.

Seated in her home with photographs of Amartya Sen on all walls, Amita Sen said: "Tagore is his dhrubatara (guiding star) and Santiniketan is the place where he comes to seek peace." Amartya visits her every winter, towards the end of December when Santiniketan conducts its convocation and when the Paus Mela is held. During his visits, he does the rounds of the ashram (as the Visva-Bharati university campus is called) on his bicycle, stops by for a round of adda (chat session) at Kalor Dokan, a tea-cum-sweetmeat stall at Ratan Palli, and frequents the Subarnarekha bookshop.

Indranath Mazumdar, owner of Subarnarekha, said that during his visits to Santiniketan, Amartya Sen always looked up his old friends who still live there. "Clad in kurta-pyjama, he would stand in the queue to buy a railway ticket from Santiniketan to Calcutta, and no one would guess that he is a Professor at Harvard and Cambridge."

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Inside, the bicycles that Amartya Sen uses whenever he visits Santiniketan.

Amartya Sen matriculated in 1947 from Patha Bhavan, an open-air school in Santiniketan where classes are held under trees. The school was founded by Tagore who wanted the learning process to break free of "narrow domestic walls". Amartya Sen then moved to Presidency College in Calcutta to study economics. He was back in Visva-Bharati in 1983 as Visiting Professor for a year. Amita Sen said: "My son was not a bookworm; he was more interested in Tagore's songs and literature than in his own subject of study. He has always been simple, very simple. And I pray that he always stays that way. After all, we come from a simple, ordinary family."

Amita Sen added that her father Kshitiomohan Sen, a Sanskrit scholar, had greatly influenced Amartya Sen in his early years. In fact, Amartya was brought up by her father at his thatched cottage in Gurupalli in Santiniketan. The family shifted to Pratichi in 1941. "My father was very close to Tagore and my son was a frequent visitor to Uttarayan, Rabindranath Tagore's residence in Santiniketan."

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At Patha Bhavan, the open-air school founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan where Sen studied.

Amarya Sen's father Dr. Asutosh Sen was an agricultural scientist who served as Chairman of the West Bengal Public Works Commission. He died in 1971; with a tinge of sadness in her voice, Amita Sen regretted that her husband was not around to share the joy.

When the news was announced on October 14, there was jubilation all around the Visva-Bharati campus. Many residents of the ashram, including students, teachers and Amartya Sen's schoolmates and friends, headed for Pratichi. Amita Sen said: "I have been flooded with calls. Everyone wants to know how I feel about this great honour being bestowed on my son. So many memories are crowding my mind. I will not say that I am proud. Proud is not the proper word by which I can express my feeling. I am happy and it is the happiest moment of my life."

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