The D School students and faculty members have started preparations for the celebrations on a war-footing. Sen will give a lecture on Lessons to be learnt from China at the D School lecture hall on Sunday morning. During his stay, he will also deliver the keynote address at the South Asian Conference on Education on Sunday afternoon at the Shanker Lal auditorium of Delhi University.

But what is giving the organisers sleepless nights are stories of past experiences of Prof Sen's lectures. ``We know for a fact that even the lecture halls at the London school of Economics cannot accommodate all the students who turn up for his lecture classes,'' says Dr Badal Mukherjee, Director of D School. ``Once the chairs have been occupied, the students squat on the floors and the window sills. They are ready to squeeze into the minimum possible space to hear himspeak.''

In fact, so many students turned up for one of his lectures at Cornell University that the professor had to give his lecture at the Cornell cinema hall. Keeping in mind the large crowd that is expected to turn up for the Sunday lecture, the D School authorities tried to get their auditorium ready but it seems last minute touches will take longer than expected.

Mukherjee told The Indian Express: ``We wanted Prof Sen to deliver the lecture in the auditorium. But it has a broken ceiling and it has been lying unused for the past 15 years. We got a grant of Rs 20 lakh from the university to repair the auditorium but it seems the work will take longer.''