Banerjee showed sparks of brilliance from a tender age:

As Kolkata celebrates city boy Abhijit Banerjee's Nobel glory, his classmate and school teacher remember the MIT professor to be introvert and unassuming in school, who showed sparks of brilliance from a tender age.

Sharmila Dey, Banerjee's batchmate at South Point School, said she feels extremely proud to have shared the same class room in South Point during 1971-78.

"We were always impressed by the manner in which he used to solve problems in the mathematics class. Beyond academics, he took great interest in sports, especially football," she told PTI.

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and another economist Michael Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for their 'experimental approach to alleviating global poverty'.

Banerjee's maths teacher Dipali Sengupta recalled how the "introvert, unassuming boy" in Class 8 finished work in a trice.

"He showed sparks of brilliance even at that tender age," she said.

Asked if she was in touch with the Nobel laureate after his school days, the elderly lady replied in the negative.

"I hope he still remembers his maths teacher in school," Sengupta added with a smile.