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Prelude: Quite some time back, I received an invitation from a former colleague at JNU, Professor R. R. Sharma, requesting that I write, in about 5000 words, my reflections on the time I spent in JNU for a collection that he was putting together. This was followed by a phone call from Professor Y. K.Continue reading “JNU in Retrospect: Corrections”

The great Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal, released in 1957 made quite an impression; some say that it is the greatest film ever made; the film is set in the background of the Black Death in Sweden and depicts the travels of a mediaeval knight (brilliantly played by Max von Sydow) throughContinue reading “The Seventh Seal Revisited: 1998-99”

This was written when CESP or the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning was getting around to celebrate 50 years of existence. How did I get into the act from the initial stages. What follows are my recollections. In 1959, I was in Standard IX or as we grandly called it, the Pre-Senior Cambridge ClassContinue reading “The Path to CESP, JNU”

Over the last several decades, one has participated in Conferences, big and small, in various capacities. One used to think that Conferences are fun places where you meet various people and exchange ideas and talk about research and the possibilities appear limitless. But things happen which may be considered funny or even sometimes, scary, dependingContinue reading “Beware of Conferences”

Srobonti Chattopadhyay translated my earlier pieces on NGM into Bengali. I am posting the translation here with her very kind permission. ননী গোপাল মজুমদার : এক বিস্মৃত স্মৃতিচারণ দিন দুয়েক আগে হঠাৎই আবিষ্কার করলাম যে পাকিস্তানের সিন্ধ প্রদেশের দাদু জেলায় নাই গজের তীরে একটা N G Majumdar Memorial Point আছে; শুধু তাই নয়, এর পাশেContinue reading “Nani Gopal Majumdar once again”

A good part of my student life was spent in learning mathematics and of course therefore, learning examples and dreading counter-examples to whatever I may have claimed. I shifted to the study of economics after my formative years were done. Some may say that I continued to dabble with mathematics even then. Be that asContinue reading “Examples, Counter-Examples and Anecdotes”

While trying to uncover what the data may be saying, one must have a ‘prior’ or some expectation of what one might see from the data. For example, a friend woke up one early morning and turning westwards, found the sun rising! Something was amiss, he concluded; since his (as well as every one else’s)Continue reading “ON PRIORS”

After a fairly long time I was at the College once again; before you correct me and say it is now an University,  my response would be, yes it is so, but I was revisiting the College (hereafter PC) I studied  in during 1961-64. The job which brought me to Presidency University (hereafter PU), wasContinue reading “Presidency University: A Visit”