Rasheeda Bhagat

Chennai , Oct. 13

As far back as 1998, when I had gone to Dhaka to interview Prof Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, almost everybody in Dhaka expected their national icon to win the Nobel Prize.

Yunus was a celebrity and one had gone to the interview wondering what kind of a man he was. You noticed that his office on the third floor of the Grameen headquarters had to be accessed through the stairs; there was no lift in the building. Two, he worked from a non air-conditioned room.

After a 90-minute session with the man who had revolutionised the concept of how micro credit could lift people out of poverty, and being smitten by his simplicity and disarming manner, I could not help commenting that the MD of the richest institution in Bangladesh (the Grameen network's collective net worth was more than any industrial conglomerate in the country) sat in a non-AC office.

To which he replied, "This is not my money; let's not forget I'm the custodian of not only poor people's money but their trust too."

And like all the other employees who got tea twice a day without milk, the Grameen MD had offered black tea to his guest, saying with a smile, "Milk adds a tremendous cost to this simple pleasure, so we avoid it!"

In the interview that Business Line carried on April 24, 1998, I asked Yunus about his deep friendship with the Clintons - Bill Clinton was then the US President - and sought his comment on Clinton's remark that he deserved the Nobel Prize.

Yunus's response: "Well, he is a good friend and as a good friend you say good things about each other!"

Celebrity status

Refreshingly, he brushed off his celebrity status and even poked a little fun at it.

When asked to comment on several Grameen employees having told me that he wins one award a week, and the context in which Clinton had said he deserved a Nobel, he said, "When the press people pestered him he said it to build up an image for me!"

Did he think such recognition was important, or was recognition from the Grameen women enough?

He said he coveted the latter, "but if a Nobel Prize comes to me, or micro-credit, it brings focus and world attention to the fact that this is not something that you throw away.

"That it is not a crazy guy from Bangladesh who is talking about it... all my life I've struggled against mindsets. People have pre-conceived notions which are more solid than a rock. It requires continued bashing to take them out of it. Global recognition would loosen that kind of mindset."

When asked how he coped with public recognition Yunus had said, "Because I'm a celebrity what I say is taken seriously. If the same thing is said by an unknown person, people will just walk away."

About his critics within the economist community - Yunus had once taught Economics at the Chittagong University - who had vehemently opposed his revolutionary ideas on micro credit, he said, "Even today they think it is a peripheral thing. I'm confusing the nation/world by diverting attention to tiny things.

"This is useless. Small amounts of money do not change people's lives. You need more grand things. You need roads, highways, investments, as you read in the textbooks. And here I'm talking about $50 and $100 loans!"

Well, rubbishing of Yunus' thoughts and theories would be that much more difficult now.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line