Question

Describe the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan in India.

Answer 1

Title: From Zero to Infinity
Author: Anonymous (Biography of Ramanujan)
Characters: Ramanujan, Classmates, Teachers, and Ramanujan’s Father
Theme: Inborn intelligence with diligence leads to excellence.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in Erode in Tamil Nadu on December 22, 1887. His father was a petty clerk in a cloth shop. From his early childhood, Ramanujan was evidently a prodigy. A question that he had asked as a boy had taken mathematicians several centuries to answer. Through out his life in his native Kumbakonam, he was always ahead of his mathematics teachers.

Senior students went to his dingy house to get their difficulties in Mathematics solved. At the age of 13, Ramanujan got Loney’s Trignometry from a college library. He mastered the book and began his own research. Ramanujan secured a first-class in Mathematics in the Matriculation examination. He was awarded the Subrahmanyan Scholarship. His father was disappointed when he failed twice in his first-year arts examination.

Ramanujan was always scribbling numbers and his father thought that he had gone mad. He began to look for a job. He needed money for food and papers to do his calculations. He started using even scraps of paper lying on the streets. Luckily the Director of Madras Port Trust, Francis Spring was impressed by his note books.

He gave him a clerical job on a monthly salary of ₹25. Later some teachers and educationists interested in Mathematics helped him get a research fellowship. The University of Madras granted him a fellowship of ₹75 even though he had no qualifying degree.

“Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can”

Answer 2

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode in Tamil Nadu. His father was a petty clerk in a cloth shop. From early childhood, he was a prodigy. Even Mathematicians had taken several centuries to answer his question. He was always ahead of his mathematics teachers.

Senior students went to his house to get their difficulties in Mathematics solved. When he was 13, he got Loney’s Trignometry from a college library. He began his own research, having mastered the book. He secured a first-class in Mathematics in the matriculation examination. He was awarded the Sub-Ramayan Scholarship. But he failed twice in his first-year arts examination. His father was upset.

As he was always scribbling numbers his father thought that he had gone mad. Ramanujan needed money for food and papers. He started using scraps of paper lying on the streets.

Luckily his note books impressed the Director of Madras Port Trust, Francis Spring. He gave him a clerical job on a salary of ₹25 a month. Later he got a research fellowship. The University of Madras granted him a fellowship of ₹75, though he had no qualifying degree. “There is no great genius without some touch of madness.