swapna wrote:I doubt if anyone knew ramanujan well, but he was a fascinating man. robert kanigel, who wrote ramanujan's biography knew his life, from his childhood in kumbakonam, to his last days, back in madras. hardy at cambridge knew his mathematics, so would manjul bhargava, the young professor at princeton, who is the 20014 fields medal winner. 

but the person who knows r's mathematics - special areas of number theory - best might be the japanese-american, ken ono, an accomplished mathematician, and professor at emory university, atlanta. here's info about ono:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160519-ken-ono-mathematician-inspired-by-ramanujan/

(I disagree wirh ono's comparison of himself wirh r, for the latter was never internally "screwed up" as ono was in his early years; r was inspired, passionate, focused on, and driven by a quest for mathematical beauty and knowledge that was beyond himself. he was perhaps a bit "screwed up" by his tb caste.)

ono and bhargava were consultants or advisors to the producers and director of the new (2016), biographical movie of ramanujan, "the man who knew infinity. the british actor dev patel plays r, and jeremy irons, hardy. I think they are good choices.

the movie is now showing in dallas, but not in many theatres. I haven't watched it yet, but hope to, soon.

the person I am most grateful to, for shining light on r's lall-too-brief life is robert kanigel, the aurhor of "the man who knew infinity." I hope the new movie rewards him adequately.

Hellsangel wrote:Is your keyboard letter 't' stuck? And you end up typing 'r'?

goodcitizn wrote:

Hellsangel wrote:Is your keyboard letter 't' stuck? And you end up typing 'r'?

He suffers from a chronic medical condition called kayalvititis.

Rashmun wrote:one other person who knows r's math intimately is this gentleman:

http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~berndt/

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i think ramanujan was or had become (in england) internally screwed up. for one, he attempted suicide when he was in england. he was, as i recall, arrested but the cops let him go after Hardy intervened.

i also vaguely recall one or two other tidbits about r in Kanigel's book which made me think he was or had become a little nutty. something about the amount of pain r was experiencing in his body and his belief that this had some relationship with cartesian coordinates.

it was very unfortunate that r was unable to bring his wife along when he went to england. she would have been a great stabilizing force in his life in england.

Rashmun wrote:one other person who knows r's math intimately is this gentleman:

http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~berndt/

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i think ramanujan was or had become (in england) internally screwed up. for one, he attempted suicide when he was in england. he was, as i recall, arrested but the cops let him go after Hardy intervened.

i also vaguely recall one or two other tidbits about r in Kanigel's book which made me think he was or had become a little nutty. something about the amount of pain r was experiencing in his body and his belief that this had some relationship with cartesian coordinates.

it was very unfortunate that r was unable to bring his wife along when he went to england. she would have been a great stabilizing force in his life in england.,