Philip Hensher

Oh! Calcutta! Amartya Sen’s childhood memories brim with nostalgia

In a captivating autobiography, Sen describes the thrill of growing up in a city teeming with bookshops and fierce intellectual debate

Amartya Sen with his sister Supurna and their cousin Mira, Santiniketan, c.1948 [Amal Kumar Sen] 
issue 10 July 2021

Santiniketan, in West Bengal, about 100 miles from Kolkata, is one of the most magical places on Earth. The Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore used a stretch of family land there to set up a great university. Modestly scaled buildings are scattered among groves; classes are conducted under the trees. The last time I was there, our rickshaw driver puttered to a halt outside a handsome residence.

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