We have all had our share of Mathematics’ stories growing up. For 90% population out there in schools and colleges, it’s the biggest source of discouragement in continuing up of studies. I’m a Mathematics graduate myself and can speak of a proud mathematics tradition running in my family. I wasn’t an able torchbearer in the least of senses but I nevertheless tried my best. I never managed to master it, very few can boast of doing that but I was very respectful when it comes to scoring marks in it….always in the vicinity of 70% and never dropping below 60% throughout but this post isn’t about my tryst with Mathematics. It was someone else’s, a man who was said to be knowing ‘infinity’, a man who today is hailed as our national hero, a man who carried the name of Srinivas Ramanujan.
Ramanujan died aged only 32. He lived in Cambridge for 5 years prior to his demise. During his time there, he formed one of the most productive and influential partnerships in recent history of Mathematics with British superstar, G.H. Hardy. Hardy says that it was one’ romantic’ relationship of his life after learning of Ramanujan’s death and calls him the ‘most romantic figure’ of Mathematics development after 16th century. Professor Littlewood, a colleague, friend and supporter of both Hardy and Ramanujan told Hardy that ‘every positive integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan’ and that he should respect and be supportive of his ‘intuitive’ skills. Why and how could Hardy, an atheist and ‘apostle of proof’ get along with Ramanujan, a devout Hindu Tamil Brahmin and ‘prince of intuition’? It wasn’t certainly a cakewalk for either of them to forge this most ‘singular’ of mathematical partnership. Hardy and Ramanujan were both recluse but while Hardy took solace only in things that have real identities and can be proved of their existence (and since God’s can’t be proved, he didn’t believe in Him), for Ramanujan, no mathematical equation held a meaning if it didn’t express a thought of God. Hardy, when first received his letters from his port office of Madras, was in awe of all the startling theorems and identities that they enclosed. These theorems were entirely unproven but Hardy had no doubts that they aren’t real for he opined that if they are not, no one would have the imagination to think of them in first place. He consulted with Littlewood and arranged for Ramanujan to travel to England and meet him. Hardy couldn’t get along with him initially for Ramanujan was led to believe that once he reached England, Hardy would help him in getting his papers, inclusive of these astonishing theorems, published but Hardy needed proofs. One cannot discard the importance of theorems in Mathematics and here we are talking about Mathematics of highest order. One could not blame Hardy either for his ‘suppressed’ indifference toward Ramanujan’s unbelievable intuitive skills. He had no qualms in comparing Ramanujan to either Euler or Jacobi or even Newton in terms of possessing natural mathematical skills but he was the product and a ‘reluctant’ pioneer of an inelastic facilitating system in Cambridge and more precisely, Trinity College. He made Ramanujan to take elementary classes from professors much lesser in Mathematical ability as compared to him simply because he wanted him to be aware of ‘steps’ that could lead to a ‘logical’ conclusion to his theorems. Ramanujan flunked badly, many a times because of his precocious talent and other times, because he was a brown Indian, inhabitant of a British colony and how dare he could exhibit such talent that could only be reserved for white, elite Britishers? Hardy was aware of these socio-political issues himself and thus worked diligently on acquiring proofs for Ramanujan’s theorems. He was the person responsible for getting first ever paper published for Ramanujan from London Mathematical Society which dealt in ‘high composite numbers’. Ramanujan came along slowly but steadily and then went on to contribute heavily in fields of number theory, partitions, tau functions, hyper-geometric series etc. Hardy was right in every regard of Ramanujan. Well over a century later, Ramanujan’s explorations and divine intuition in numbers have found wide usage in fields of computer development, internet, statistical physics and black hole study. Every single theorem of his stood the test of the time and although mathematicians are still having a hard time in finding the proofs of his theorems, they all know they are searching for the ‘truth’ just like Hardy believed them to be. He continues to be an enigmatic figure for Mathematicians all over the world who draw inspiration from his humble beginnings and then his meteoric burst onto the center-stage of world mathematics among the giants of the fields such as Hardy, Bertrand Russell, Littlewood and Major MacMahon.
One of the modern mathematical giants, Ken Ono, an American-Japanese mathematician is a devotee of Ramanujan and has dedicated his life in deducing the proofs of Ramanujan’s theorems. His father, Takashi Ono is a distinguished professor of mathematics himself and wanted the young Ono to emulate him. Ken was a child prodigy but high cooker pressure environment of his growing up years compelled him to drop out of college and trod a path on his own. He somehow stumbled upon Ramanujan’s biography, the person whom his father adored and admired, and became so inspired that he not only decided to reconcile with his mathematician father but became a celebrated mathematician in his own regard. This year, he wrote his maiden book titled ‘My Search for Ramanujan: How I learned to Count’ where he has woven his life story with one of Ramanujan and the lessons he learned, the most important of them being ‘humanity’. Robert Kanigel, a mathematical engineer livening in America, has written the most authoritative biography of Ramanujan titled, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan’. It’s a seminal work of great science writing and one which became the basis of Matthew Brown’s 2015 film, The Man Who Knew Infinity starring Jeremy Irons as G.H. Hardy and Dev Patel as Srinivas Ramanujan. Many literary and mathematical associations including both American and English termed it as ‘arguably the best film about Mathematics ever made’ and I shall ask all of you to watch it if you care about this legendary mathematician and the subject interests you. It’s as good as ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and certainly well better than ‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’ and I’m saying this not because of my growing reverence for Ramanujan which is obviously one of the reasons but also as it stands as a very fine motion picture on basis of cinematic standards alone.
Hardy, many years later when he grew acquaintance and a personal friend to Ramanujan, asked him, how he could possibly think of all these incredibly complex theorems out of nowhere and Ramanujan, knowing that Hardy is an atheist, resisted answering him. But when he was pressed beyond control, he told Hardy that his Goddess, Namagiri tells him everything when he is praying to her or in sleep. Hardy scarcely believed as expected of him but he knew as he always knew that Ramanujan was telling truth. Now the world believes him and his ‘divine intuitions’ are testaments to time. He surely knew ‘infinity’!!!
Ramanujan died aged only 32. He lived in Cambridge for 5 years prior to his demise. During his time there, he formed one of the most productive and influential partnerships in recent history of Mathematics with British superstar, G.H. Hardy. Hardy says that it was one’ romantic’ relationship of his life after learning of Ramanujan’s death and calls him the ‘most romantic figure’ of Mathematics development after 16th century. Professor Littlewood, a colleague, friend and supporter of both Hardy and Ramanujan told Hardy that ‘every positive integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan’ and that he should respect and be supportive of his ‘intuitive’ skills. Why and how could Hardy, an atheist and ‘apostle of proof’ get along with Ramanujan, a devout Hindu Tamil Brahmin and ‘prince of intuition’? It wasn’t certainly a cakewalk for either of them to forge this most ‘singular’ of mathematical partnership. Hardy and Ramanujan were both recluse but while Hardy took solace only in things that have real identities and can be proved of their existence (and since God’s can’t be proved, he didn’t believe in Him), for Ramanujan, no mathematical equation held a meaning if it didn’t express a thought of God. Hardy, when first received his letters from his port office of Madras, was in awe of all the startling theorems and identities that they enclosed. These theorems were entirely unproven but Hardy had no doubts that they aren’t real for he opined that if they are not, no one would have the imagination to think of them in first place. He consulted with Littlewood and arranged for Ramanujan to travel to England and meet him. Hardy couldn’t get along with him initially for Ramanujan was led to believe that once he reached England, Hardy would help him in getting his papers, inclusive of these astonishing theorems, published but Hardy needed proofs. One cannot discard the importance of theorems in Mathematics and here we are talking about Mathematics of highest order. One could not blame Hardy either for his ‘suppressed’ indifference toward Ramanujan’s unbelievable intuitive skills. He had no qualms in comparing Ramanujan to either Euler or Jacobi or even Newton in terms of possessing natural mathematical skills but he was the product and a ‘reluctant’ pioneer of an inelastic facilitating system in Cambridge and more precisely, Trinity College. He made Ramanujan to take elementary classes from professors much lesser in Mathematical ability as compared to him simply because he wanted him to be aware of ‘steps’ that could lead to a ‘logical’ conclusion to his theorems. Ramanujan flunked badly, many a times because of his precocious talent and other times, because he was a brown Indian, inhabitant of a British colony and how dare he could exhibit such talent that could only be reserved for white, elite Britishers? Hardy was aware of these socio-political issues himself and thus worked diligently on acquiring proofs for Ramanujan’s theorems. He was the person responsible for getting first ever paper published for Ramanujan from London Mathematical Society which dealt in ‘high composite numbers’. Ramanujan came along slowly but steadily and then went on to contribute heavily in fields of number theory, partitions, tau functions, hyper-geometric series etc. Hardy was right in every regard of Ramanujan. Well over a century later, Ramanujan’s explorations and divine intuition in numbers have found wide usage in fields of computer development, internet, statistical physics and black hole study. Every single theorem of his stood the test of the time and although mathematicians are still having a hard time in finding the proofs of his theorems, they all know they are searching for the ‘truth’ just like Hardy believed them to be. He continues to be an enigmatic figure for Mathematicians all over the world who draw inspiration from his humble beginnings and then his meteoric burst onto the center-stage of world mathematics among the giants of the fields such as Hardy, Bertrand Russell, Littlewood and Major MacMahon.
One of the modern mathematical giants, Ken Ono, an American-Japanese mathematician is a devotee of Ramanujan and has dedicated his life in deducing the proofs of Ramanujan’s theorems. His father, Takashi Ono is a distinguished professor of mathematics himself and wanted the young Ono to emulate him. Ken was a child prodigy but high cooker pressure environment of his growing up years compelled him to drop out of college and trod a path on his own. He somehow stumbled upon Ramanujan’s biography, the person whom his father adored and admired, and became so inspired that he not only decided to reconcile with his mathematician father but became a celebrated mathematician in his own regard. This year, he wrote his maiden book titled ‘My Search for Ramanujan: How I learned to Count’ where he has woven his life story with one of Ramanujan and the lessons he learned, the most important of them being ‘humanity’. Robert Kanigel, a mathematical engineer livening in America, has written the most authoritative biography of Ramanujan titled, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan’. It’s a seminal work of great science writing and one which became the basis of Matthew Brown’s 2015 film, The Man Who Knew Infinity starring Jeremy Irons as G.H. Hardy and Dev Patel as Srinivas Ramanujan. Many literary and mathematical associations including both American and English termed it as ‘arguably the best film about Mathematics ever made’ and I shall ask all of you to watch it if you care about this legendary mathematician and the subject interests you. It’s as good as ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and certainly well better than ‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’ and I’m saying this not because of my growing reverence for Ramanujan which is obviously one of the reasons but also as it stands as a very fine motion picture on basis of cinematic standards alone.
Hardy, many years later when he grew acquaintance and a personal friend to Ramanujan, asked him, how he could possibly think of all these incredibly complex theorems out of nowhere and Ramanujan, knowing that Hardy is an atheist, resisted answering him. But when he was pressed beyond control, he told Hardy that his Goddess, Namagiri tells him everything when he is praying to her or in sleep. Hardy scarcely believed as expected of him but he knew as he always knew that Ramanujan was telling truth. Now the world believes him and his ‘divine intuitions’ are testaments to time. He surely knew ‘infinity’!!!
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