About Me

Talking about myself? Well, quite a difficult job. To talk about oneself, one may also need to know about oneself. And more than four and half decades of my life slipped by in talking, knowing, and spreading things about others. Lol…

Okay, let's begin with the beginning of my life. I don’t think I have shared the most famous birthday on this planet. But still, Martin Charles Scorsese, Stanley Cohen, Walter T. Stace, and Eugene P. Wigner love sharing it with me. It makes me feel good. But then, I think about the millions of others who were luckily born on the same day but couldn't achieve similar heights. It makes me sad.

I was born and raised at Debagram (A small beautiful village, about 90 miles “far from the madding crowd” of Kolkata, West Bengal) in the eastern part of India. I did all of my schooling (up to Class-XII) at Debagram S. A.Vidyapith. I got my Undergraduate [B. A (Hons.)] and Graduate [M.A] degree in Economics from Visva-Bharati University. After that, I had the opportunity to teach in a college for several semesters and following that, I was associated with a government of West Bengal-sponsored Project for seven months as well as managing a welfare society before moving to the USA for my doctoral studies, first at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts and then transferred to The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.

My goals in life? Career-wise, I had too many, and haven’t shown fidelity to any of them for a long time! When I was a kid, I wanted to join the Indian Air Force, then I went on flirting with the idea of becoming a film star, software engineer, doctor, painter, MBA, etc., etc.  But everything got changed forever on the very first day I attended my first undergraduate economics class at Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, India; I began to get fascinated by the subject and it has never left me. I’d like to thank my dad (a mathematician by profession) today for forcing me to enroll in the Economics Honors Program. Today, I’m confident that my niche is a combination of careers in teaching and quality research in the field of Applied Economics. My present experience of being an Associate Professor at AIM or my previous experience as an Instructor/part-time/guest Professor is great, doing what we know to do and what we love: teaching and spreading our knowledge to others; as well as engaging in quality writing and researching. But we may sometimes also feel like pirates of the Caribbean, snake oil salesmen, proletarians, revolutionaries, parents, and slaves. It is romantic, isn't it?

Moreover, like any incorrigible Scorpio, I’m primarily obsessed with only one thing in my life- ‘Kaizen’ as they say in Japanese, or 'self-improvement' as it is called in English. Oscar Wilde said, “The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly- that is what each of us is here.” I truly believe in every word this maestro of words has uttered here.

That’s not all. But, thanks for the charming, interesting, and breathtaking one-sided conversation we just had!!!

That's me just after SEA (2012) Conference, New Orleans, LA, USA.