Retired Academician

We make a living by what we get; but we make a life by what we give. It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than to watch it accumulate meaninglessly. The greatest use of wealth is to spend it on doing maximum good to maximum number of people.

For me, specifically, I have a personal stake in fighting poverty. I was born and brought up in West Bengal, in a lower middle class family. Ironically, my father belonged to an upper middle class family in Bangladesh. His family lost everything during partition and had to spend the first few nights after their migration on the streets of Kolkata before finding a shelter.

My father could not complete his graduation owing to political disturbances and had to be content with a clerical job in the government with a meagre salary. From the very childhood, I have seen stark poverty staring at my face from close quarters and I resolved to fight it whichever way I can. Philanthropy is one of those ways. Now, I have started believing that our real enemy is not any political entity from outside like Pakistan or China, it is our own poverty.

– Prof. Dr. Asim Kumar Bandyopadhyay