Amartya Sen
It’s really difficult to write anything about a memoir because while it is written for an audience, it is also intensely personal. But I think the perspectives are such that it deserves a larger audience, and I hope even this drop in the ocean can help in that!
The book is more about the life, and less about the work. They obviously intermingle to a large extent, but the focus is on the relationships and the exchange of thoughts. In some cases, the subjects of discussion also manage to creep in, but they aren’t inaccessible, except on a couple of occasions.
In the beginning, when I started reading about his background, and his family’s relationship with Tagore, I thought he was privileged. What added to it was the seemingly casual mention of historical figures, Gandhi downwards! It would be easy to think of this as incessant name-dropping, but Amartya Sen bends over backwards in acknowledging the privilege, and luck, that shaped his life.
What we actually get is a behind-the-scenes look at how his worldview evolved over time. I am quite amazed by the prodigious memory! Starting with the openness intrinsic in the Shantiniketan pedagogy, to his discussions with extended family and family friends, the debates at Presidency College and then Cambridge, the book is full of personalities and their ideas, and how they shaped the thinking of a Nobel laureate. But more than the awards, what comes out is an unwavering openness to different perspectives, an approach to problem-solving that involves conversations and debates, and most importantly, a sense of justice that follows the tradition of Tagore and Adam Smith.
The narrative has a disarming humility and a sense of humour that will win you over. That, combined with a richness of discourse that is increasingly hard to find, makes this an excellent read.
P.S. Thanks to the book, I learnt that bosons (as made famous by Higgs boson, a.k.a. The God Particle) were named after Satyendra Nath Bose
P.P.S. I found at least three books of different genres to read courtesy this book
