The Divine Mathematics

The Divine Mathematics

The 125th birthday of the great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujam passed by a few days back, rather quietly (except for a google doodle may be) - one might say it was not surprising in a Nation which has for long forgotten to look at its own strengths and contributions, and more recently even more lost in the chaos of politicians - of its own and of the Italian import kinds.

And what about the visual and the print media ? I haven't yet come across anything significant from them either. In fact,  perhaps today, this piece got an extensive space in daily mail UK and so far I haven't seen the Indian media pick it up except for a much shortened version in "Hindu Business Line"

Go through the two, and tell me, what major difference do you notice in the treatment of the subject ?  True to its 'tradition' which is has ever made its name a misnomer the "Hindu" Business Line has completed ignored the Hindu aspect. One might say that the UK mirror was meant for an audience not-so-familiar with Ramanujam, and the HBL being an Indian publication, did not want to repeat the well known ? .. well well well ... well known  ?

Quoting from the mirror "Ramanujan, a devout Hindu, thought these patterns were revealed to him by the goddess Namagiri" .   I just wanted to pause at that statement and give it some thought ... Could there have been any motive for Ramanujam to lie ? Not one that I can think off .. after all why would one give credit to someone else , even if it be a Goddess.. One potential argument that could stand logic (though not necessarily true unless proven to be so) is from Hardy - "Ramanujan's religiousness had been romanticised by Westerners and overstated by  Indian biographers" source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan#Personality_and_spiritual_life

Yet, there could not have been a complete cooking up, as he lived within the last 100 years and its not a "Jesus lived but cannot be proved" kind of period. Even for those who do not want to believe (stress - not believing in it is also a a belief) in the Goddess theory, there is surely the astonishment of theories without proof (Or .. "Less Proof, More Truth" ) . Has there ever been a serious study of what really was behind these great revelations ? Will one ever be able to understand the "Divinity of Mathematics" and "Mathematics of the Divine" ?

pic courtesy: http://mesmath.blogspot.in/2012/07/hardy-ramanujan-number-1729-is-natural.html

Tailpiece: As a kid, inspired by Ramanujan's number, I used to look for more such interesting numbers.... (related old post of mine is here)...  I had those "findings" scribbled on bits of papers.. which in the stream of time disappeared, much like my habit of playing with numbers. Yet at around this time, I felt like simply  taking a look at the Gregorian date of Ramanujam's birth and death 

Birth - 22/12 ... 22 X 12  = 264 .. 264 squared is 69696 .. a nice looking number 

Death 26/4 .. 26X4 = 104 .. 104 squared is 10816 .. both 108 and 116 are sacred for Hindus.. no doubt, the Divine Mathematician reached closer to Mathematical Divinity that day !

NoMa4NaMo

No Match for Narendra Modi

Amidst 'progressive' media and 'let-India-be-damned-forever' folks trying their best to play it down, either by first arbitrarily speculating a 140+ and then trying to mock, or by presenting statistics in all distorted forms, the man stood out with a hat-trick victory ! 

And that was against various odds, including a potential tampered EVMs, which in a high probability have been programmed to change hands(read as "turn in favour of the hand") a fixed percentage of votes polled. And the cat is let out of the bag by none other than the Congees themselves, though with a twist hoping to build an argument in their favor

And then, once the p-media (substitute p with progressive with quotes, or psec or paid.. whichever you like) realizes that Narendra Modi simply doesn't care for these "dog barks as the elephant walks past magnanimously" , it shifts it attempts to the "Will you enter National politics" as though so far (and may be even henceforth) Gujarat was never and integral part of India, and as though being a permanent invitee (as a CM) in the BJP National Executive doesn't mean "National politics". None other than Modi himself could have put it better as he said "Ye bhi Bharat Mata ki Seva hi hein" when he spoke of development of Gujarat in his victory speech

But then, yes, there is the curious question of whether he will attempt to be a PM. And in that context, this small piece of mine, after aeons, tries to look at the future a bit. Nothing of an extensive analysis, just some rants

IMO, the first "hurdle" of Modi-4-PM would be he himself making up his mind ! One of the perpetual Modi critics, put it "Knowing him, I feel he will go for it only if he feels he can win it". At the surface, I tend to agree at least a certain bit with that, though perhaps thats just the conditioning of the mind, having never seen Modi as an "opposition leader". Even then, I feel there is some substance to the argument of "Will he not take the decision" ? Will he in some sense up go the Sardar Patel way - " the best PM that India never had" ?!

The second question is about the acceptability part. And I think I have a rather simplified (which may look one-sided) view of this. Due to three factors, if NaMo agrees, I think the BJP should declare him for PM.

1) TINA : There is No real Alternative within BJP who is as popular and strong.. and strength begets votes. Going by its conventional vote-base BJP(not NDA) cannot win more that ~160 seats on its own and they need at least 220.

2) The so called minority/progressive lot would anyway have not voted for BJP, even if some one else or no-one else were declared PM candidate. A few allies here and there may get more, but will not make much difference

3) A factor that I have felt purely out of my own interaction with people - there is a new sense of identity that NaMo has given to the kind of people are who are not pro-Congress/pro-thirdfronties , but at the same do not want to be openly associated with the BJP (for various reasons like corruption/inefficiency and the simple "party politics is a matter of shame" funda). I have found an increasing number of such people who are willing to admit "Modi will be good for India" though these people have hardly anything to do with BJP or the RSS ..

I simply hope that BJP listens to this pulse-of-the-Nation and makes an appropriate decision at the appropriate time. Before I leave, I have to mention a few words about AAP , the Aaam Aadmi Party. In kind of along the same lines of point #3, I must say that there is also a class of people, ashamed to associate themselves with any political party, but thinks that AAP is different and so started to vouch for them... problem is , they don't realize that AAP is just another political party.. and perhaps even a bunch of anarchists, best exemplified by my own experience at a rally of theirs while in Chennai (and while they were still IAC) - a bunch of youngsters on motorbikes, on the road, disrupting traffic to distribute their pamphlets and none of them wearing helmets. So break as many laws as convenient to you, to bring "new laws" and revolutions.....  grow up my dear AAPs ... literally !