The Story of Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan is a well-known name in the world of mathematics. When he first theorized his ideas, he had merely just stepped into his 20s. At the time, he was merely a clerk at the Accounts Office of Port Trust Office based out of British-ruled Madras. He made a salary of no more than ₹1500 -1600 per year at the time, towards the beginning of the 1900s. So, what is it that a clerk in early 20th Century Madras did that made him such an influence on the world of mathematics? Let’s find out.
It was in the year 1902, when Ramanujan was merely 15 years old, that he got his hands on mathematician George Shoobridge Carr’s mighty 2-volume book: Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics. This was the book that steered Ramanujan’s life in the direction of his breakthroughs in mathematics. The book was filled with thousands of theorems with little proof to show for them, and on the daily, Ramanujan himself attempted each and every theorem by himself. It was at this young age of 15 years that he knew in the back of his mind, exactly where his life was going to go.
The following year, Ramanujan earned himself a scholarship at the University of Madras to pursue his higher education. Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring himself to focus on much else other than mathematics, and this even became his downfall when he lost that scholarship the mere next year. He lived the next five or so years of his life utterly impoverished, but consistently working on new theorems and solving previously unsolved ones. It was only when he married in the year 1909 that he ended this hiatus of his living his life in the poorest of circumstances for nothing other than maths.
Now having a wife to support made Ramanujan in search of a steady source of income. His curiosity and brilliance of work in the field of mathematics at that early point of time is what led him to find a patron who was absolutely awed by his works. After having lived off his this benefactor, Ramachandra Rao, and also finding in himself the dislike for taking Rao’s charity, he got himself the job at the Port Trust Office, while still working on his theorems and the like simultaneously. It was a few years later that Ramanujan sent the courier package to England that changed his life and revolutionized his findings.
In January of 1913, a mathematician in Cambridge, England received a package of papers that culminated with the solution to the longstanding mathematical dilemma: the problem of the distribution of prime numbers. The package was filled with about eleven pages worth of theorems proving this solution. Preceding this stack of papers within the parcel was a cover letter, written by the author of the theorems, which explained who he was: Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician who had undergone ordinary school but no special training in mathematics, but who had nevertheless sent some impressive and redefining work in the field. Godfrey H Hardy was the man who received this noteworthy courier, and his response was to bring the sender to Cambridge to work some more on the ideas that Ramanujan already had and had to further develop.
The offer to ship himself to England was an exciting one, but he did not agree to it without his due reluctance stemming from his religious beliefs. In the end, his curiosity, love, and excitement for the subject of mathematics is what made Ramanujan forgo any reluctancy or apprehensions he was facing. The decision he made was the best one he could because it led him to some brilliant and discoveries in mathematics. Ramanujan was granted a scholarship from Trinity College in Cambridge, and adding to this, he was the second Indian in the world to become a Fellow of the Royal Society, which was one of the highest honors for an individual of any of the sciences. Needless to say that his Fellowship was only one of the many awards that the man received for his brilliant work, and it was all because he had the courage to follow through on his curiosity and allow it to take him where he eventually arrived at in his life.
Take from Srinivasa Ramanujan’s story what you should, which is that his curiosity got him where he was at the end of his 32 years of life. Use your curiosity and let it guide you to reach your potential, and even further. But before you do that, take the Curiosity Test to find out what Curiosity Type you come under!
