It is a sultry evening in Delhi and we are at the Alliance Francaise de Delhi for the launch of French-American economist and Nobel winner Esther Duflo and illustrator Cheyenne Olivier's latest book, Poor Economics for Kids, consisting of stories that aim to sensitise children to the world around them. Duflo, dressed simply in a red kurta, has an effervescence about her as she endeavours to answer the questions of her young audience. Like that of a boy of around 12, who refers to her Nobel speech about wanting to make people understand poverty. "By writing this book, have you achieved it?" he asks. Duflo is patient yet encouraging, smilingly explaining that the job of eradicating poverty can never be fully over, and so she will continue to write more books and work towards it.
But the question that really intrigues her is one by a librarian in the back. If one has not experienced poverty, how can they connect with the story? It is a good question, one which harks back to Duflo's own childhood. She never knew poverty, for she comes from a privileged background. Her parents a paediatrician and a maths professorraised her in a western suburb of Paris. All her knowledge of the underprivileged came from her mother, who volunteered across the world and worked closely with children who were victims of war. "I was amazed and somewhat awed by my luck: how come I, Esther, get to be born in this middle-class, intellectual family, with loving parents, decent schools, and all the food and books I need, while some other kids are born in Congo, in the middle of a war, and are forced to carry a Kalashnikov to fight?" she asks in an essay written when she won the Nobel Prize for Economics, along with her husband, Abhijit Banerjee, and colleague Michael Kremer, in 2019.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin August 11, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin August 11, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
The female act
The 19th edition of the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival was of the women and by the women
A SHOT OF ARCHER
An excerpt from the prologue of An Eye for an Eye
MASTER OF MAKE-BELIEVE
50 years. after his first book, Jeffrey*Archer refuses to put down his'felt-tip Pilot pen
Smart and sassy Passi
Pop culture works according to its own unpredictable, crazy logic. An unlikely, overnight celebrity has become the talk of India. Everyone, especially on social media, is discussing, dissing, hissing and mimicking just one person—Shalini Passi.
Energy transition and AI are reshaping shipping
PORTS AND ALLIED infrastructure development are at the heart of India's ambitions to become a maritime heavyweight.
MADE FOR EACH OTHER
Trump’s preferred transactional approach to foreign policy meshes well with Modi’s bent towards strategic autonomy
DOOM AND GLOOM
Democrats’ message came across as vague, preachy and hopelessly removed from reality. And voters believed Trump’s depiction of illegal immigrants as a source of their economic woes
WOES TO WOWS
The fundamental reason behind Trump’s success was his ability to convert average Americans’ feelings of grievance into votes for him
POWER HOUSE
Trump International Hotel was the only place outside the White House where Trump ever dined during his four years as president
DON 2.0
Trump returns to presidency stronger than before, but just as unpredictable