Sen fulfilled his big dream by dropping out of his studies midway, and daringly travelling to France with just $8, the only amount he could muster then. His mother had sold her only asset, a gold marriage bangle, to buy him a return air ticket for Rs 2700 (US$ 349 in 1973) with 3 months visa permit. Here is Sen on 16 November 1973, his second day in Paris, in front of Louvre Museum where he could not afford to enter.
When India was partitioned 1947 to create Pakistan, a new country for Muslims, about 20 million people of Bengal and Punjab were displaced and brutally victimized. Sen’s wealthy, literate family had huge landed property in erstwhile East Bengal, the present Bangladesh, which was carved out to be East Pakistan for Muslims. So for being Hindus Sen’s family was overnight evicted from their home. Without taking any possessions, they fled for their lives amidst people warring over religion, and so became squatted refugees in West Bengal.