21-2021 Casting pearls again in 2021 …..

I cast the same pearls again, in 2021. And I discovered some more swines to add to my list:

  1. St. Andrews School, Bowenpally
  2. NSKK High School, Ferozeguda
  3. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Airforce Station, Begumpet. No website found for this school. It is unbelievable that such schools exist even today.
  4. Pallavi Model School, Bowenpally

These schools were chosen due to their proximity from where I live. The announcement and reminders were sent about two weeks ago. My sympathies and apologies to students who missed an opportunity to discover the joy of mathematics and an inspiring intellectual giant.

They say, 2 can take the horse to the water, but ….. In fact, even 200 cannot take the animal to the water, if it is a stubborn and unwilling swine. I am happy that I tried. Never mind, I failed once again. I will try again next year, Insha-Allah. I do not give up so easily. I owe this experience to the great Ramanujan and to the mathematics he gave us.

Amen.

QUOTE
Sirs,

You have not yet reacted or responded to an important announcement I made about the forthcoming National Mathematics Day (quoted below). I infer that you are either not interested or deserve this opportunity. Ignoring communications from a well-intentioned and senior person, of international repute, is a rude,
uncivilised and impolite act. I take this a personal insult. Your behaviour reminds me of an old saying about “Casting pearls before …”. See:
https://drpartha.org.in/wp/2018/12/20/6-2018-casting-pearls-before-swines/ ,
to understand what I mean.

This conversation is closed now.

partha

UNQUOTE

See : Casting pearls before swines

16-2021 What a coincidence — Part #2 !

See :: What a coincidence ! (Part #1).

Que : Why is 2 November, “a day of coincidences” ?
Ans: Remember these coincidences:

  1. It is the birthday of a great man, known for his humility and modesty (me !).
  2. It is also the birthday of a great mathematician/logician George Boole.
    Boole is the father of Boolean algebra, the basis of all modern computer systems.
    (click on the image to know more about George Boole)

    See: the illogical death of a brilliant logician. (pdf file)

  3. It is the day when George Bernard Shaw (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw), died. Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature (1925).
  4. It is on this day, Christians (Catholics) around the world celebrate “all souls day”, as a day of prayers and remembrance of all departed souls. At bedtime, the supper is left on the table for the souls.
  5. Recently, I discovered that my day of birth was a Thursday. The famous Indian mathematician

    Srinivasa Ramanujan was also born on a Thursday
    (click here to know more about Ramanujan).

No wonder, I am inspired by these giants !

On 2 Nov. 2022, I celebrate my 72nd birth anniversary, as I step into my 73nd year on this earth.

PS: You can add this to the list of “History’s strangest coincidences”

55-2019 How a chance discovery saved a precious mathematical legacy.

THE LOST NOTEBOOK OF RAMANUJAN

Ramanujan’s last major contribution “mock theta functions” were almost lost forever, but for a fortunate discovery made years later. The story of the lost note book goes like this ::

Ramanujan’s lost notebook is the manuscript in which the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan recorded the mathematical discoveries of the last year (1919 — 1920) of his life. Its whereabouts were unknown to all but a few mathematicians until it was rediscovered by George Andrews in 1976, in a box of effects of G. N. Watson stored at the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge and were due to be incinerated in a few days. The “notebook” is not a book, but consists of loose and unordered sheets of paper — “more than one hundred pages written on 138 sides in Ramanujan’s distinctive handwriting. The sheets contained over six hundred mathematical formulas listed consecutively without proofs.The manuscript contains no introduction or covering letter. In fact, there are hardly any words in the manuscript. There are a few marks evidently made by a cataloguer, and there are a few remarks in the handwriting of G. H. Hardy.

After Ramanujan died on April 26, 1920, at the age of 32, his wife Janaki had given his notebooks to the University of Madras. On August 30, 1923, the registrar Francis Drewsbury sent much of this material to G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan’s mentor at Trinity College, where he probably received the manuscripts of the lost notebook.

Almost surely, this manuscript, or at least most of it, was written during the last year of Ramanujan’s life, after his return to India from England. Undoubtedly, the most famous objects examined in the lost notebook are the mock theta functions.

Some time between 1934 and 1947 Hardy probably passed the notebook on to G. N. Watson, who with B. M. Wilson started on the project of editing Ramanujan’s notebooks. However, Wilson died in 1935 and Watson seems to have lost interest in the project in the late 1930s. After Watson’s death in 1965, J. M. Whittaker examined Watson’s papers (which were a complete mess, due to be incinerated in a few days) and found Ramanujan’s notebook, which he and R. A. Rankin sent to Trinity College Wren library on December 26, 1968. The lost notebook George Andrews, following a suggestion by Lucy Slater, found the lost notebook in the spring of 1976 while on a visit to Trinity College. George Andrews and Bruce C. Berndt have published several books in which they give proofs for Ramanujan’s formulas included in the notebook. Bruce C Berndt says of the notebook’s discovery: “The discovery of this ‘Lost Notebook’ caused roughly as much stir in the mathematical world as the discovery of Beethoven’s tenth symphony would cause in the musical world.”

The “lost notebook” was published on December 22, 1987, by Narosa publishing house, India, 67 years after Ramanujan died !

Also see :: Remembering Ramanujan

****

54-2019 When a mother almost killed her own son ………

When a mother almost killed her own son …….

It is not known to many that the legendary Indian mathematician Ramanujan attempted suicide in 1918, by jumping before a train. Ramanujan was under mental depression, brought about by the harsh weather he was not accustomed to, strict and inappropriate dietary habits, very demanding and stressful research activity, poor health conditions, war related miseries, and above all, separation from his newly married wife Janaki. Luckily, he was saved just in time, because the driver slammed the brakes in time.

There is a saas-bahu twist to Ramanujan’s tale. When he returned to India in 1919, he was miffed at Janaki, his wife. Ramanujan rebuked her, “I wrote so many letters, at times once every week, but you chose not to reply even once”. Mystified, sobbing Janaki told him that she was writing letters frequently even when none were received from Ramanujan. She was handing over letters to her mother-in-law for posting, as she had no money for even postage. Both of them then realised the dirty game played by the mother-in-law in hiding letters from each other. Many years later, Dr S Chandrasekar recounted his conversation with Janaki Ammal, who apprehended that longing for loving words from his wife perhaps was one of the contributory factors for Ramanujan’s depression, which led to him to the attempted suicide. The selfish mother never thought of the consequences of her foolish and cruel act.

This episode has a sad and cruel climax. Just a few months later, the mother had to see with her own eyes, the painful death of her own son. The mother could not even repent the injustice she had done to her own son, and ask his forgiveness.

See Remembering Ramanujan

22-2019 It is not the fault of the swines ……..

It is not the fault of the swines. Why blame the swines ?

swines
Casting pearls before …..
Almost two months after I launched this campaign, and after trying my best, and contacting many learned people personally, I find that no one recognises the pearls lying before them. No one has cared to take notice, no one has cared to react or respond. It happened to Ramanujan, it happened to many other people like him, they were all guilty of casting pearls before animals who cannot recognise the pearls. Let us not blame the swines. The indifference continues.

In the meantime, 26 April 2020 is getting closer, relentlessly.

See: Casting-pearls-before-swines

Wake up, at least now, and show that sometimes, even swines can recognise pearls.

6-2018 Casting pearls before swines

Casting pearls before swines.

Today (22 December) happens to be the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan,
a brilliant mathematician who created some incredible mathematics which is
used in a wide variety of fields. Some years ago, after several proddings, the Government of India declared 22 December to be the national mathematics
day. Predictably, the celebrations stopped with that declaration. We continue to bask in our ignorance and indifference, given that many of our so-called mathematicians and institutions remain blissfully ignorant of this great mathematical genius. We do not even know how to celebrate or worship Ramanujan, much less understand or appreciate him. Year after year, I have tried to convince my neighbourhood schools to spend some time talking about mathematics seriously (other than routine classroom lectures). I even compiled and made available on the web, a lot of material about Ramanujan. But no one even noticed it. I have not succeeded in making any dent in their mindset. Maybe, two can lead a horse to the water, but two hundred cannot make the animal sing, if it is a donkey or a swine.

Here are some more discoveries I made:

  1. Where ignorance is bliss
  2. Where ignorance is bliss … a
    sequel.
  3. The sequel to a sequel
  4. Ramanujan deserves more than this

  5. My own humble tribute to the genius, in my own little way:

  6. Remembering Ramanujan

“Tamaso maa jyothirgamaya” (lead us from darkness to light — a famous Hindu prayer)

Amen

See: Casting pearls again in 2021