ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to combine reminiscences and academic commentary in order to highlight some particularly remarkable aspects of Gautam Bhadra's scholarship and life. Gautam would sneak away between classes to the West Bengal State Archives on Bhabani Datta Lane, a narrow and foul-smelling street bordering the college on its north, and consult 'original' documents bearing on the beginnings of British colonial rule in Bengal. The real Gautam would surely have been much kinder to and appreciative of his teachers. But the stories speak of the formidable reputation that Gautam had acquired as an undergraduate student. He began to write in Bengali a series of articles in Anya Artha on the nature of agricultural economics in Mughal India. Gautam's decision to write in Bengali has been rewarded amply and in the end not only by the award of prestigious prizes and positions but, more importantly, by the love and admiration of numerous researchers and readers in India, Bangladesh, and elsewhere.
