Tale of a genuis

Last week I was disdained by the amount of words and needless descriptions the author used in the tale. This week, the story remarkably picked up and became a non-stop read. The descriptions and the lucidty of the story, along with the seemingly endless sentences in typical British style were endearing.

What was also interesting was the story; which does not differ much from the real version of events. So Ramanujan was a poor man living in South India with an uncanny penchant for mathematics. He was awarded numerous scholarships but they were usually taken away because he couldn't be bothered with any other subject. While in India, he wrote countless theorems, without any formal training in the subject, an achievement he attributed to a local Goddess.

He then decides to write to 3 Professors in Britain (this was during pre-independence), one of whom identifies his sheer talent and brings Ramanujan to the UK. This Professor is Hardy, one of the greatest mathematicians of that era, perhaps in the same league as Isaac Newton.

Ramanujan comes to England, makes many more break throughs, as a result of which countless awards are bestowed on him. He becomes the youngest fellow of the FRS (at 29), a feat that no one until today has topped. FRS is Fellow of the Royal Society.

This mathematician however is extremely religious and from the sounds of it a picky eater. With time he is severally malnutritioned and as a result of World War I cannot gain access to the vegetables, etc. he needs to sustain himself. So he becomes ill, very ill and is constantly in and out of hospitals. Finally he decides, after the war, to return to India where at the age of 32 he passes away. This is what the book tells us.

I wiki Ramanujan and find the exact same version, but my guess is the author chose to call it fiction because he inserts certain dialogues and instances that cannot be independently verified.

Here comes the mind boggling part -- this harmless young man with absolutely no formal training in mathematics growing up, conjured the greatest discoveries in the field. People who are not trained in mathematics may not understand the importance of these feats but consider this -- mathematicians themselves are only just beginning to fathom the breadth of his work! A man way ahead of his times, it is said his formulae might explain String theory; considered to be the unified theory of everything, as well as multiple dimensions, wormholes, levitation and so much more!

Indeed a sad end to great talent!