Book Reviews and Notes

We all read these wonderful sheets of literature, sometimes bound together as a book on various things and forget about them until we stumble upon them when shifting to a new apartment or cleaning the book shelf , at that time you think of donating them away for you neither have the time nor the inclination to go over it again. Kindle and iPad are definitely handy and save space but they are worse than a dusty book rack in reminding what you had read. Lets just say, when it comes to reading for pleasure they are a bit characterless - these are the necessary idiosyncrasies that make a man. Only a distilled lucid thought prevails in the mind at that point about the book. So I thought I will take some initiative to create a record of what was read: upon finishing every chapter I will write something about it and that way it keeps me going, a public record for someone interested or just another page of digital junk.

I like biographies, so here we go....

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of The Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel

Before ordering this book I read quite a bit about Ramanujan that's available on the internet. The more I read the more I wanted to read. I understood it was a legendary but a sad story of a great man.  I feel that to truly understand why someone is considered great is a daunting task and most of the time one is compelled to go with the flow for there is lack of time, resources or intellect. I just finished reading the Prologue where Kanigel says that a dedicated mathematician with a Ph. D. would not suffice to plumb the depths of Ramanujan's works. Wolfram's mathematica came very handy in looking up some of Ramanujan's work and there is wikipedia for everything else - just to get a sense for the severity of his genius, if I can put it that way.

I ordered the book on Amazon.com and there is a reason why this company is No. 1 in what they do - I ordered it on May 23rd thinking I was late for it will not make it to the long weekend (May 26th) but when I opened my mail-box in the morning it was sitting there as a pleasant surprise - Amazon.com is a supply-chain wonder.

Robert Kanigel is an American science writer (and an engineer by trade!). Ramanujan was an Indian in British India and G. H. Hardy, the one who recognized the genius of Ramanujan and became his good friend and on whom several chapters are dedicated in this book, was English, so this work of Kanigal is a conglomeration of three influential worlds. Since Kanigel is neither an Indian nor an English I am hoping this book will give a unique and non-partisan view of these two fascinating characters/worlds from their/its cerebral stand-point.    

The book has the flavor of a typical biography - nonparticipant third-person narration and there is doodling of equations and poems from time to time which is indeed my favorite literary combination!

I was slightly disappointed when I read Kanigel spent only 5 weeks in South India - one needs 4 weeks to acclimatize to India with a superior immune system together with jet-lag (unless he is a seasoned traveler). I  do not know how intelligent an observer Kanigal is - he definitely must have read quite a bit about India before visiting but India is a different beast, the one with two hundred eyes, hands and legs, it cannot be so easily conquered/captured. India is a real culture. Looks like he traveled India in the late 80s so things may have been better then. Ramanujan died in 1920 so Kanigel visited India 60 years after his death and it was approximately 30 years of independent India. It must have been an intimidating task for Kanigel to associate the happenings of a life-time outside of its space and time. There is biography and there is the biographer!

Some eulogistic words:
"It is a story of one man and his stubborn faith in his own abilities. But it is not a story that concludes, Genius will out- though Ramanujan's, in the main, did. Because so nearly did events turn out otherwise that we need no imagination to see how the least bit less persistence, or the least bit less luck, might have consigned him to obscurity."

---- May 27th 2012

Chapter - 1

Finished first chapter - very simple and clear writing. Kanigel indeed demonstrates his superior understanding of the South Indian culture. He draws parallels between South Indian and European ways of life whenever possible.

----May 28th 2012