Nobel Laureate’s home trip: From award to football club membership, laurels & gifts keep pouring in for Abhijit

He will also attend an informal get-together with his then teachers and contemporaries. The group of alumni gifted Banerjee a copy of the Presidency’s Alumni Association’s magazine, Autumn Annual, along with a bouquet of flowers and sweets.

Abhijit Banerjee a garment outlet in Kolkata on Wednesday. (PTI)

They also handed over a letter from its president and famous Bengali writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen. The letter contained proposals made by the association.

Bivas Choudhuri, secretary of Presidency Alumni Association, told reporters after their visit, “We came here to invite him to the university. We have decided to confer the 2020 Atul Chandra Gupta Distinguished Alumnus Award to him. He has agreed to receive it. We also told him that we will organise a get-together. We will invite teachers who taught him and are still alive. We will also invite his contemporaries and also those who ran the canteen and the college administration then. He is happy and told us that he would give us a date in January.”

Banerjee had completed his graduation with Economics Honours from Presidency College in 1981 securing a first rank in Calcutta University. The authortities have also sent a proposal to the university’s governing board for conferring Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) on all three Nobel winners in Economics this year – Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and economist Michael Kremer — in the next convocation.

Calcutta University also decided to confer an honorary D. Litt upon Banerjee in its next annual convocation. Vice-chancellor of CU Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said that Banerjee had agreed to accept the degree.

Later, Banerjee, met writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen at her residence at Hindustan Park. Sen is former wife of Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen. Banerjee spent more than 40 minutes with the writer and her daughters Antara and Nandana. He gifted her his new book Good Economics for Hard Times to her, and she gave him a copy of her latest Bengali novel, Bhalobasar Baranda (A Balcony of Love).

After visiting Sen, Banerjee stopped for quick shopping at an outlet in Hindustan Park and bought clothes for his wife Duflo. A employee of the outlet told reporters that he had bought a churidar set for girls and bought a kurti set from the women’s section.

Later in the day, football club Mohun Bagan conferred their life membership to Banerjee after club officials met him at his residence. “Assistant general secretary Srinjoy Bose and finance secretary Debashis Dutta met Banerjee at his Kolkata residence at 4 pm and conferred him with the life membership of Mohun Bagan Athletic Club,” the club said in a statement.

Abhijit Banerjee with Mohun Bagan’s assistant general secretary Srinjoy Bose (right) and finance secretary Debashis Dutta in Kolkata on Wednesday. (PTI)

The club also handed him the First Day Cover of 1911 and the maroon-green jersey with his name written on it.

He was also given the book titled Sona-e-Lekha Itihase (History Written in Gold) written by Subir Mukherjee on the history of the club.

According to the club, Banerjee had earlier expressed his desire to watch a Mohun Bagan game from the stands during his next visit to Kolkata in January.

Meanwhile, sources said Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is likely to meet Banerjee either at his residence or Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport late on Wednesday night. He is likely to gift Banerjee shawls before he departs for US.

He is slated to leave the city early on Thursday.