The Man who knew infinity

Topic started by Vasu (@ cacher.austin.ibm.com) on Fri Oct 19 13:23:42 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I havent read much (auto)biographies [except for the Wings of Fire which inspired me most]. But here is a great biography by Robert Kanigel about the greatest mathematicians of our times - Srinivasa Ramanujan. Kanigel has impressed very much with his excellent account of R - on almost every aspect of the person. The narration is very unbiased and at times very gripping. Some times you are lead to believe to be along-side R when the important events of his life took place.

We know several anecdotes about R. But here is a very rare one, to show the thoroughness of the author.

In his last days R probably became fully aware that he isnt going to live longer. It seems that he cast his own horoscope only to find that he will die in early 30s. After his return from Cambridge, staying in Madras, he was still working frantically (on mock theta functions) and he was advised rest by his doctor. They advised him to goto either Coimbatore or Thanjavur. R quipped immediately, "Let me goto Than-saa-vur" - literally meaning "City of my own death". This is an amazing pun in Tamil, showing R's remarkable humor.

On the whole this book will definitely adorn my book case.


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