Remembering the genius

Ramanujan's birthday, December 22, is now celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India

The story of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) continues to fire our imagination more than a century after his lifetime. Even those of us who are not enraptured by the elegance of pure mathematics are moved by his determination, methods and achievements. It is hard not to think about the contributions he would have made had he not died in his early thirties.

His birthday, December 22, is now celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India. As the man’s birthday week comes to a close, it is impressive to note how he keeps resurfacing in books, films and plays, asking to be remembered. The latest to join the bandwagon is a work of fiction called Ramanujan: From Zero to Infinity (2022), written by Arundhati Venkatesh, illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, and published by Duckbill Books.

Venkatesh clarifies that her protagonist’s “traits, interests, mannerisms, appearance, relations with his parents and friends” are based on what biographers learnt from his neighbours and schoolmates many years after his death. She does not mention the names of books consulted in the course of her research but does mention that she read a lot and also visited his house on Sarangapani Sannidhi Street in Kumbakonam, where one can also see his school certificates.

Unlike Matthew Brown’s film The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), which focuses mostly on the mathematician’s life at Cambridge, Venkatesh’s novel concerns itself with his childhood in Kumbakonam. It is rewarding to engage with both, and be open to what they have to offer. As is the case with all influential figures of the past and present, it is advisable to take things with a pinch of salt given the human tendency to exaggerate, see things in black and white, and dismiss what is not easy to comprehend.

Brown’s film has actor Dev Patel in the lead capturing for us the restlessness of a creative mind, and the urgency to publish his discoveries so that they do not perish with him. His life’s purpose is to worship at the altar of mathematics, and he wants to carry on even when he is faced with racist speech and physical violence.
 

The confidence that he exudes can be easily mistaken for lack of intellectual humility but he is not a person deluded by self-importance. He seeks to be heard and understood by fellow mathematicians. He argues for intuition to be taken as seriously as evidence. He attributes his abilities to goddess Namagiri. He says that it is she who speaks to him and puts formulae on his tongue when he prays and sometimes in his sleep. He says: “An equation has no meaning to me unless it expresses a thought of God.”

The child prodigy we meet in Venkatesh’s novel does not speak as passionately. He is at a different stage of life. The reins of his life are in his mother's hands. When his friends ask him why he never comes when they call him to play, he says: “My mother doesn’t let me.” She compares his friends to “unleashed donkeys” and considers playing with catapults, spinning tops, marbles and kites “a complete waste of time”. She recognises that her son has a gift, and it needs to be nurtured. She wants him to have the financial security that his father — a clerk at a sari shop — could not offer the family, as a result of which she has to sing bhajans at temples in the neighbourhood to augment their family income.

The mother’s strong influence is also seen in Brown’s film, which is based on Robert Kanigel’s biography The Man Who Knew Infinity (1991). When the mathematician goes to Cambridge, she worries that her daughter-in-law’s letters might distract him from his work. She hides the letters, and ensures that they do not reach her son. The film also hints at her insecurities about having a diminished role in her son’s life. The choices that grow out of these beliefs widen the distance between the young couple. They miss each other deeply. While the film plays on the stereotype of the supposedly evil mother-in-law, it also draws attention to the cost that the wife has to bear for her husband’s success. She has to take care of his family and keep waiting for him to return.

Unlike Brown’s film that is emotionally intense, Venkatesh’s novel is light-hearted in spirit. She presents the little genius as a boy who loves being fed delicacies cooked by his mother, scribbling away in his notebooks, and using puns and riddles to annoy his friends. He does not like seeing anyone perform better than him in maths examinations. Since the novel is recommended for readers who are 10 and above, some of these experiences would be easy to relate to.