Four days before he passed away, prominent economist Bibek Debroy wrote in his last column sent to The Indian Express, “There is a world outside that exists. What if I am not there? What indeed?” Indeed, this rumination on the ‘world outside’ is not unusual for a scholar who also worked extensively with classical texts and scriptures. “So am I, transient and puerile, a dot that might have been wiped off. In that event, what would have happened?” he questions in the letter.