Gandhiana-81:

Eyecatchers-3: Einsteins's Letter to God

Inspiring Lives-64: Rudyard Kipling's Birthday

Inspiring Lives-63: Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan's Birthday today.

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God.

--Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 - 26 April 1920)

Srinivasa Ramanujan FRS (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Living in India with no access to the larger mathematical community, which was centered in Europe at the time, Ramanujan developed his own mathematical research in isolation. As a result, he sometimes rediscovered known theorems in addition to producing new work. Ramanujan was said to be a natural genius by the English mathematician G. H. Hardy, in the same league as mathematicians such as Euler and Gauss. He died at the age of 32.

Born at Erode, Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu), Ramanujan's introduction to formal mathematics began at age 10. He demonstrated a natural ability, and was given books on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney that he mastered by the age of 12; he even discovered theorems of his own, and re-discovered Euler's identity independently. He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning accolades and awards. By 17, Ramanujan had conducted his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler–Mascheroni constant.

Ramanujan received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam, but lost it when he failed his non-mathematical coursework. He joined another college to pursue independent mathematical research, working as a clerk in the Accountant-General's office at the Madras Port Trust Office to support himself. In 1912–1913, he sent samples of his theorems to three academics at the University of Cambridge. G. H. Hardy, recognizing the brilliance of his work, invited Ramanujan to visit and work with him at Cambridge. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Ramanujan died of illness, malnutrition, and possibly liver infection in 1920 at the age of 32.

During his short lifetime, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations). Nearly all his claims have now been proven correct, although a small number of these results were actually false and some were already known. He stated results that were both original and highly unconventional, such as the Ramanujan prime and the Ramanujan theta function, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research. However, the mathematical mainstream has been rather slow in absorbing some of his major discoveries. The Ramanujan Journal, an international publication, was launched to publish work in all areas of mathematics influenced by his work.

In December 2011, in recognition of his contribution to mathematics, the Government of India declared that Ramanujan's birthday (22 December) should be celebrated every year as National Mathematics Day, and also declared 2012 the National Mathematics Year.

Inspiring Lives-62: BEETHOVEN

BEETHOVEN BIOGRAPHY –

Life of Ludwig Van Beethoven –

Discovery History Documentary

313,808 views

Whgh Wamen

Published on Jul 5, 2015

Grateful thanks to Discovery History, Whgh Wamen and YouTube.

Inspiring Speech-1: A Philanthropist Speaks: "Lessons from Life"

A Philanthropist Speaks: "Lessons from Life" - Ms Sudha Murty

739,825 views

CITRIS

Published on Nov 13, 2007

Sudha Murty is an Indian social worker and an accomplished author. She is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and is known for her philanthropic work through the Infosys Foundation. Among other things, she has initiated a move to provide all government schools in Karnataka with computer and library facilities. An MTech in computer science, she teaches computer science to postgraduate students. A prolific writer in English and Kannada, she has written nine novels, four technical books, three travelogues, one collection of short stories and three collections of non-fiction pieces. Her books have been translated into all the major Indian languages and have sold over 150,000 copies. She was awarded the Padmashree in 2006.

Grateful thanks to Ms Sudha Murty, CITRIS and YouTube.

Video Interviews-2: Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi - Interview - TV Eye – 1978

2,658,126 views

ThamesTv

Published on Jul 20, 2015

An interview with  Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi is asked some rather uncomfortable questions by Thames Televisions Jonathan Dimbleby regarding Indian Politics and the crack down on the press while she was Prime Minister. Mrs. Gandhi is also asked whether she would ever run for Prime Minister again.

First Broadcast in 16/11/1978

Grateful thanks to: Thames TV and YouTube.

Gandhiana-80:

Eyecatchers-2: Tamil Popular Writer honoured

Tamil Popular Writer, Mr.S.Ramakrishnan, wins Sahitya Academy award for his novel, "SANCHARAM".

Hearty congratulations to him.

Many thanks to The Times of India, English Daily