Srinivasa Ramanujan by C.P. Snow- summary

Srinivasa Ramanujan

C.P. Snow

C.P.Snow’s “Srinivasa Ramanujan” is an extract of his book Variety of Men. This particular prose on Ramanujan is taken from the biography of the mathematician Hardy, who is known as a person of ‘discovering’ Ramanujan. This prose describes about Hardy’s interest on Ramanujan, his invitation of Ramanujan to London and their contribution to maths. Though it talks about Ramanujan, every detail was given from the perception of Hardy.

          Hardy was a world famous mathematician working as a professor at Cambridge University. As he was a famous mathematician he used to receive manuscripts from people all over the world. Mostly they dealt with the wisdom of pyramid, Revelation of Jews protocols and insertion of Shakespeare’s work in Bacons. In 1913 January he received an untidy envelope from India. The sheets inside were not clean and written mathematical theories in non-English script. He looked at those signs with no interest and soon felt bored by it. Most of the theorems were wild without any proof and some already known. Hardy got irritated by it and left it aside to start his routine work.

          Every day he used to read Times newspaper while having his breakfast. Then from 9a.m. to 1p.m. he might give lecture to the students or work on his own findings in Maths. He used to have a light lunch and then play tennis in the University court. That day he could not concentrate on anything. The wild theorems of the Indian started disturbing him. He doubted the Indian either a fraud or a genius. He could not come to a conclusion so he called for his friend Littlewood. They discussed about the theorems in Hardy’s room. The narrator calls it as an ocean one would like to present about the response and discussion of Hardy and Littlewood about the works of Ramanujan. They understood that those letters were from a genius mathematician. Then Hardy decided to invite Ramanujan to London. Before sending the manuscript to Hardy, Ramanujan has sent it to two more Maths professors in London. But they could not evaluate the knowledge of Ramanujan which was judged correctly by Hardy. Hardy decided to invite Ramanujan to England with the help of Trinity College which funded many geniuses earlier. Though it was easy to bring Ramanujan to London, they actually needed the support of a super human. The super human is Goddess Namakkal. Ramanujan was born in a Brahmin family who considered crossing ocean as forbidden. He was working as clerk in Madras. His mother was a conservative who followed Brahmin tradition strictly. Surprisingly she allowed him to travel for London by describing her dream in which she saw Ramanujan seating in a big hall among the Europeans. She also stated that it was the command of Namakkal.

In 1914 Ramanujan reached London. Though Ramanujan did not believe much in Theological Doctrine, he believed the rituals (like wearing Pyjamas and eating vegetarian cooked by him). They both had a close relationship. Hardy thought that Ramanujan was an untrained genius. Due to his poor knowledge in English, he could not pass his degree in Madras University. So when Hardy talked about general things in English, Ramanujan looked confused. Even in maths Ramanujan was a self-taught. Hardy once thought that if Ramanujan had got education he would be lesser in knowledge. Later he corrected himself by thinking that Ramanujan would be wonderful if had better education. Hardy taught Ramanujan some formal maths. They both produced five papers of the highest knowledge. The Royal society of England elected Ramnujan as a Fellow at the age of thirty and also received a Fellow from Trinity. Ramanujan was the first Indian to receive such honour in England.

The climate of London made him to be ill soon. He was admitted in a hospital in Putney, London. The famous taxi-cab number incident took place in the hospital. Hardy went to meet Ramanujan in the hospital by a taxi. He started the conversation by stating that the taxi number in which he travelled was a dull number 1729, which activated Ramanujan. He replied immediately that was a very interesting number by stating “smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways”. This showed the intelligence and interest of Ramanujan in maths. Ramanujan died of tuberculosis in Madras at the age of thirty three. In his apology Hardy mentions the list of great mathematicians who all died at young ages.