During my last visit to the United States, I happened to stay at an Airbnb in Oakland, California. At one point during my stay, I was approached by a person who looked exactly like Morgan Freeman who asked me if I was from India. I said, yes, I was, and he was quite excited about that.
He was working on his laptop, and invited me to sit beside him, which I did. He started talking about India and when I asked him what exactly he does, he told me that he was a mathematician, a professor who has written a couple of books, and he was in California for a conference. He said that he was originally from Kenya and a couple of generations back his family migrated to America and now they were American citizens.
It was quite surprising for me because throughout my experience in America nobody had ever approached me, shaken my hand and asked me if I’m from India, I never found Americans to have that kind of excitement about Indians.
Right before leaving, I asked him, “Mr. Geoffrey, you seem very excited about India, may I know if there’s a particular reason for that?” He said he was excited about India because he admires Srinivasa Ramanujan more than anyone else in his life. He started talking about Ramanujan and his work, his contribution to the world of mathematics, his ideas about infinity, formulae, and the mathematical techniques he wrote which are capable of solving phenomena like black holes and wormholes. He also added that for three of his books, Srinivasa Ramanujan’s essays written 100 years back were his ultimate references.
I said goodnight to him and for a long time thought about Srinivasa Ramanujan and his contribution to mathematics which I was not familiar with. There are around 1.3 billion people in this country, I don’t think most of us think seriously about his contribution.
Because of this man who lived a 100 years ago, I was fortunate enough to experience welcoming and friendly treatment from a foreigner who was an admirer of his.
The sagas of legends are often like that, their contributions to mankind last for an infinity.
So, today I am gratefully remembering Srinivasa Ramanujan for his great contribution to the world of mathematics.
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