Page 28 - Ramanujan Yatra

the Royals Society, the highest honour for any scientist. Successive research, publication and other contributions led to his election for the prestigious “Fellow of Royal Society of London” on 2 May 1918, at the age of just 30. He was one of the youngest Fellows ever elected.
The hard work taking a toll on his personal health, a growing sense of isolation and the exposure to extreme English cold weather led to tuberculosis in 1917 (tuberculosis was the universal threat of that time). As his health worsened, he returned to India in 1919. His mentor Hardy and other friends in London strongly hoped that Ramanujan would recover once he was back in India and continue his work.
His mother, wife and the well-wishers like Namperumal Chettiar and a famous Physician of that time in Chennai, Dr. Chandrasekarn, all of them tried to improve his health. However, as the disease was at a matured stage he couldn’t recover. His orthodox family members skipped his funeral stating that he committed a sin by travelling across the sea and therefore received the curse of the god. Very few people, as in the case of the National Tamil Poet Mahakavi Bharathi, attended his last rites. The man, who has an eternal life for his great mathematical contribution, had to leave silently.
Even on his deathbed, he wrote down a group of theorems that he said came to him in his dream. Not only his last theorems, but many of his theorems are so complex that the full scope of Ramanujan’s legacy has yet to be completely revealed and his work remains the focus of extensive mathematical research.
Ramanujan’s life and death leaves many questions to the mathematical fraternity. ‘The man who knew infinity’ came from an extremely difficult circumstance and contributed immensely for the future generations. The conventional education system, in which he dwelled and which has not changed much even today, lack critical approach to understand, recognize, inspire and encourage the children’s knowledge and interest in the subjects taught. Under this stereotyped system Ramanujan failed to earn recognition in his school and college, though he was a genius in mathematics. This way the system might have lost and still losing a huge number of prodigies like Ramanujan, who defy the system and hence left unnoticed.
Ramanujan’s momentous efforts and the timely help from the philanthropists of his time enabled him to continue his work uninterruptedly and contribute to the world of mathematics. As a poor cloth store employee’s son in a small city like Kumbakonam, he had to take up a clerical job at the Port Trust of Madras for his livelihood. How he emerged as a mathematical genius and left such a huge impact within his short life time is a great mystery even today.
Ramanujan
YATRA
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