Kolkata: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, who is on a brief visit to his parental home, spent Wednesday meeting family friend and award-winning novelist Nabaneeta Dev Sen and a quick shopping at a reputed fabrics outlet in the city.
Nabaneeta Dev Sen, also a poet, was elated meeting “Jhima da” (as Banerjee is called) to whom her family knows since his childhood days.
Banerjee, who arrived in the city Tuesday evening, enquired about the health of the 81-year-old Padma Shri awardee and was treated with nalen gurer sandesh (sweet) along with snacks by the family, her daughter and actress Nandana Dev Sen said.
He stayed at Dev Sen’s 72 Hindustan Park residence for about 45 minutes. Banerjee gifted his last book to her.
Nandana Dev Sen said after Banerjee got the noble prize and talked to her family over phone from the US, he expressed wish to visit “Nabaneeta Masi” during his Kolkata visit.
Banerjee, an Indian-born American professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has won the Nobel Prize in economics for 2019 jointly with French-American Esther Duflo, his wife and Michael Kremer of Harvard University for “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
“We know Jhima da since our childhood days and we visit his home when we go to Boston. Jhima da became very emotional as he met us, we chatted for some time. He had to leave soon because of a big media and police presence outside, but promised to have a quieter meeting when he visits the city again in the future,” Nandana Dev Sen said.
Nabaneeta Dev Sen said, “I am happy that he came to visit me even during his short visit to Kolkata. His mother visited us day before yesterday. We have been close friends for a long time.”
Banerjee later went to a reputed fabrics outlet, known for its collection of ethnic dresses, and stayed there for about half-an-hour.
A spokesman of the outlet said he bought a churidar set for girls and sherwani kurta for boys. He also purchased a kurti set from the ladies section.
Banerjee, did not reply when waiting mediapersons requested him to say something and boarded his vehicle preceding the pilot car. He is slated to leave the city early Thursday.
The noble laureate had his schooling and college education in Kolkata. He studied in Presidency college (now Presidency University) in the metropolis.
Representatives of the alumni association from Presidency met Banerjee at his eighth floor apartment Wednesday morning and handed over a felicitation letter planned for January next year. They also gave him a scarf.