Ramanujan….concluding part.

Apart from such unintentional lapses, Ramanujan lived like an orthodox Hindu during his years in England. He had a puja room in his college lodgings and worshipped regularly. Though he always dressed in European clothes when he went out, in his rooms he wore his caste mark and dhoti and walked around barefoot. He was popular among the Indians at Cambridge and occasionally invited friends over for a meal. A good host, he made delicious vegetarian food, and entertained his guests with not too difficult mathmatical puzzles.

Ramanujan had three extremely fruitful years at Cambridge. Then in the spring of 1917, he fell ill. Tuberculosis was suspected, but it’s more likely that he was suffering from a severe vitamin deficiency. Doctors felt that his health might improve if he returned home, but because of the war, it was too dangerous to travel. For the next couple of years Ramanujan was in and out of hospital vainly seeking a cure. He grew steadily weaker, but his mathematical talents were unaffected. Once while visiting Ramanujan in a London nursing home, Hardy started chatting with him about the number of the taxi that he’d come in.

“It was 1729,” Hardy said. “It seemed to me rather a dull number.”

Ramanujan protested. “No, Hardy, no Hardy!” he cried. “It is a very interesting number expressible as the sum of two cubes in  two different ways.”[1729 = (12*12*12)+(1*1*1) as well as (9*9*9*)+(10*10*10) ]

Apart from his illness, another matter was tormenting Ramujan at this time. It had become clear to him that a good deal of the work he’d done in India was a rediscovery of what European mathematicians had already established. So many precious years wasted! All that he’d accomplished in England could not make up that loss. Deeply depressed and lonely, Ramanujan threw himself in front of a train in the London Underground. Luckily, the train stopped in time. Ramanujan was arrested , but Hardy persuaded the police not to press charges.

It was soon afterwards that Ramanujan received two unique awards. He was elected to the Royal Society- the second Indian to be so honoured. And a few months later, he became the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge.

Ramanujan rallied briefly towards the end of 1918, and in February 1919, by now gaunt and emaciated, he set sail for home.

He received a hero’s welcome. But, alas, the warm climate and Janaki’s cooking failed to improve his health. He continued to work on his mathematics and write to Hardy, but it waqs clear that the end was near. Early in the morning of April 26, 1920, he passed away. Sadly, he had to be cremated without any rites- no priest would perform them because he had broken caste taboos.

At his death, Ramanujan left behind thousands of unpublished theorems in several notebooks and scraps of paper. This legacy has fascinated mathematicians ever since.

The eminent Hungarian mathematician George Polya once borrowed Ramanujan’s notebooks from Hardy then returned them a couple of days later almost in a state of panic. Ramanujan’s formulae, Polya said, were so fascinating that he kept trying trying to prove them and in the process was neglecting his own work. Other mathematicians have spent years doing just this and new sub-discipline in mathematics have grown up around their efforts.

Indeed, more than eight decade after Ramanujan’s death, many of his mathematical insights still have relevance to today’s complex problems in a growing number of disciplines. “It’s a shame Ramanujan wasn’t born a hundred years later,” said Professor Richard Askey of the University of Wisconsin, Madison,USA. “It would be marvellous to have somebody with his intuition to help us.”

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Hello Dear Friends,

I would like to thank all of you who read such a long post of Mr.Ramanujan,the great Mathematician & commented too. I thought of sharing this article because its inspired me a lot & made me so proud of a person who is an Indian & at that time when he don’t have any facilities he made his name not only in the country but out of the country also. With so much of superstitious belief , so much of poverty, without giving up his dream he again & again struggle to make his name in the history. At his last few days also when he was suffering to a disease & was so week. inspite of all those things he continue his love for his subject, his dream, his knowledge & made the country so proud. Today also many of his theorems are used for many things in our day to day life is such a fantastic thing. I got so much of respect & love for this person. Its a small tribute to such a great personality through my blog.

Sorry for the inconvenience in reading as i used a pattern which is uncomfortable to read i think. Changed the pattern now. Hope you all will find comfortable in reading this article. Thanks once again.