The Man Who Knew Infinity ∞
You would have easily inferred from the title that this article is about Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan or more commonly S. Ramanujan, who is a remarkable example of mathematical brilliance. He was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu on 22 December, 1887. India celebrates his birthday as National Mathematics Day . While most of us may be tormented by the mere idea of Trigonometry, Ramanujan was thorough with trigonometry at the age of 12. So, if I try to fit Ramanujan in today’s India, he would be a typical non-medical science student, attending coaching classes to crack JEE to make it to the dream education brand of India. Nevertheless, this piece is about Ramanujan and not about the poignancy of the education system. About how this man, who against all odds, went on to become the first Indian to be elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge . When he was 16, he came across a book – ‘A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics’, which aroused his curiosity in...