chakravarthy

His work has had a fundamental role in the development of 20th century mathematics and his final writings are serving as an inspiration for the mathematics of this century. On a height he stood that looked towards greater heights. Our early approaches to the Infinite Are sunrise splendours on a marvellous verge While lingers yet unseen the glorious sun. What now we see is a shadow of what must come .  -- Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 1.4 -- The story of Srinivasa Ramanujan is a 20th century 'rags to mathematical riches' story. In his short life, Ramanujan had a wealth of ideas that have transformed and re-shaped 20th century mathematics. These ideas continue to shape mathematics of the 21st century. This article seeks to give a panoramic view of his essential contributions. Born on 22nd December, 1887 in the town of Erode in Tamil Nadu, Ramanujan was largely self-taught and emerged from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th cen...

In his last years of life, Albert Einstein knew he was ill and refused operations that would save his life. He made his wishes clear: "I want to be created so people won't come to worship at my bones"[source: Peterniti]. Einstein died on 18th April, 1955, at the age of 76 of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurism, and he got his wish as far as his bones were concerned; his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location. But Einstein's brain was a different matter. During the autopsy, conducted at Princeton Hospital, a pathologist named Thomas Harvey removed Einstein's brain - the brain that had given the world such revolutionary thoughts as e=mc2, the theory of relativity, an understanding of the speed of light and the idea that led to the completion of the atomic bomb. Harvey held the brain that produced those thoughts in his hands. And then he took it. Depending on whom you beleive, Harvey either did a wonderful thing for science that day, or he's is no bet...

[ Source: The Independent, written by Peter Popham ]. A short distance out into the wild the group spotted a chinkara. Salman Khan took a rifle from the bag, aimed and fired. The wounded animal ran; Khan leaped from the car and chased it on foot and shot it again. When it collapsed, someone took a knife and cut the deer's throat. Soon afterwards two more chinkara were spotted. Khan shot again, wounded one of them, then jumped out and slit its throat while the deer struggled and cried and finally died. They took the two carcasses back to Jodhpur, where staff at a hotel were roused from their beds and obliged to clean and cook them for the party. If any of the villagers in the area of the hunt heard anything that night, they kept quiet about it. The party, again led by Khan, went out hunting again and again: on the 27th, 28th, 30th. No one breathed a word. These, after all, are the kings of Bollywood, India's new maharajas, and they do as they please. By day Khan strolled aro...

[ Based on an article written by Vandana Shiva (Executive Director of Navodaya Trust) published in Deccan Chronicle, dated 09th February, 2018 Oped p.11 ].  Across the world, there is an intense contest emerging between two paradigms of health and two paradigms of science. The first is holistic and sees connections between the health of the planet and our health. It is based on the ecological science of inter-connectedness. The second one is reductionistic, mechanistic and commercial. The mechanistic world view sees us as separate from nature and each part of our body as separate from all others, as parts of a machine are. Health is defined as a commodity we buy from the pharmaceutical industry. In the United States and Britain, intense debates are taking place over Obamacare and the NHS, on whether health is a public good or a privatised commodity for sale. In India, a multi-dimensional debate emerged when there was introduced in Parliament. The (IMA) called a strike to prot...

(1). What is the meaning of 'pussyfoot'? (1). The word is mostly used in informal contexts and has several different meanings. One of them is to tread or walk softly like a cat. We all know that cats - including big ones like lions. tigers, leopards, etc. - cam sneak up on their prey without making a sound. Example : "The burglar pussyfooted down the stairs". In the early 1900s, the word was frequently used in America to refer to a detective. Understandable, I guess, since detectives have to keep an eye on others without being seen or heard. With the passage of time, 'pussyfoot' acquired a negative connotation. Nowadays, when you tell someone to 'stop pussyfooting around/about', you want the person to stop being indecisive. You would like to stop being timid, and commit himself to a course of action. Examples : "Das, will you please stop pussyfooting around and tell us what you want done"; "Stop pussyfooting about, and tell me what y...

[ Based on an article written by Mohan Guruswamy, published in Deccan Chronicle dated 06th March, 2018 (Wednesday), OPED p. 11 ]. The note of elation that seems to have crept into our discourse because of India's GDP growth once gain creeping past China's can't be missed. But the elation misses an essential reality. That is that the Indian and Chinese economies are now in two entirely different stages of development. For a start, China's GDP is more than India's. Its GDP is now about $12 trillion, while India is inching towards $2.4 trillion. How China moves and acts in the future will affect the developed economies enormously as it has been the major provider of growth for the past two decades, and India's growth had little bearing or derived little benefit from it. They exist in different orbits of the world economy. A slowed-down China now growing at 6.6 percent still adds $700-800 billion to global growth, while a speeded-up India now growing at more t...