The ‘self-obituary’ published posthumously in The Indian Express on 1 November, merely a few hours after the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) breathed his last at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has created waves in social media. Some saw in it a premonition, some sensed a loss of will to live, some call it brutally frank while critics caustically focus on the mention of the higher Padma awards. Bibek Debroy or BDR, as we called him, was controversial, a polarising topic at parties, gatherings and social media groups. My association with him started as a student and surprisingly, it shaped my trajectory in life in a large way.
Back in the 1990s, I was a victim of industries abandoning West Bengal for greener abodes, married as I was to a private sector executive. My husband was given an ultimatum by his company to either leave West Bengal for the headquarters or take a pink slip. To make things worse, a year later my two young children ran away to stay with their father. The family moved to Chennai and then to Delhi in a historically transforming country. I remember dining at the newly-opened KFC outlet with police guarding us and visiting the blossoming malls.
Then a crisis loomed when my husband was given an overseas assignment. Leaving my permanent job in Kolkata was a tough decision at that age, for we needed the money. Learning that a temporary job in Delhi would qualify me for leave was a solace. On a cold January morning, waiting for an interview which turned out to be a mistaken call ‒ given my specialisation ‒ I suddenly saw BDR passing by. He stopped to greet me and I was amazed that he remembered my name after all those years. I also noticed that he was treated with great esteem at that economic institute.
Yes, BDR was our teacher at Presidency College, Calcutta, now Presidency University, Kolkata. While the senior teachers literally formed an intellectual galaxy of renowned economists, the younger teachers completing their PhDs, were presumed to be economists with great potential. Our department Head, the legendary Professor Dipak Banerjee (DB), who pioneered the introduction of Mathematical Economics, entrusted BDR to teach us that subject. (As a relevant aside, DB’s son and student at Presidency, Abhijit Vinayak went on to win the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences with Esther Dufflo and Michael Kremer, being the second student of our hallowed department to win that award).
Apart from fables of his ultra-leftist past, what made BDR more memorable for us was a football match our students had asked him to play for in the class team. Wearing a red T-shirt, our long- haired young teacher stunned the boys and girls by scoring the only goal in the match.
Towards the end of our under-grad days BDR made frequent trips to Cambridge. The whisper was that he had had some grave disagreement with his examiner. That was the BDR I knew, a man who showed little caution or cared to adapt to a situation even for his own interest. He was then lost from our orbit and we almost forgot him, even though years later I would see his name in articles published in the Bengali daily, Anandabazar Patrika.
At a different stage of my life I came to meet him in Delhi and sometimes visited him at his plush office. I was told that his PhD at Cambridge was never completed. To get a job in Delhi, a reference was very important and I luckily met a person who knew me. I discussed my gendered family problems with BDR and he helped me unconditionally and sympathetically till I found a job, even as I noted how incredibly busy he was with his work. After my husband returned from abroad, I resigned from my Kolkata job. Having completed my doctoral work, I got a permanent job and the family was united after years of disarray.
Since then, I have met BDR occasionally at events, a couple of time I met his wife too and heard him at off-the-track seminars like the legal reform. That is my history with BDR.
An event in 2004 had confounded me. Suddenly a report produced jointly by BDR and a colleague made people sit up. In public mind, the state of Gujarat was still sweltering in the dying embers of a violent riot and not many had given a thought to other aspects of the state and the role of its chief minister at the time. Praising the state’s economic performance, the report threw the common crowd, especially those hankering for faster reforms, into a turmoil. Not surprisingly BDR’s affiliations changed then on in rapid succession ‒ even as I settled snugly in mine.
I had a few encounters with BDR after he joined as advisor to the present - day government. Another era has dawned with more evident reforms, as a new generation with a new-age outlook begins to look for its path in life. I always planned to convey my personal thanks to BDR one last time, but he was so busy. So, that was not to be.
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