Creative work: Ramanujam IT Park has four towers named Carr, Hardy, Neville, and
Littlewood, the Cambridge mathematicians who ensured that the world recognised
Ramanujan.
| Photo Credit: LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
Exactly a week ago, the day it rained most unexpectedly and with such intensity in our city, I was at the Ramanujan IT Park, or the Ramanujan Intellion as it is named. For those who do not know, it is one of the IT SEZs in Taramani. Going for the inauguration of the new office interiors of Latent View Analytics, one of the occupants, I could not help noticing that the four towers in the complex had been most creatively named.
Not just that, this had been done by someone with deep interest in and awareness of the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s short life. The four towers are named Carr, Hardy, Neville, and Littlewood. All four were mathematicians who were at Cambridge and played important roles in ensuring that the world recognised Ramanujan. Commending silently whoever it was that had thought of these four men, I could not help thinking as to whom I would have named the towers after, had I been given such a choice.
Tower of strength
The first would undoubtedly have been Janaki Tower, after Ramanujan’s wife, who was with him for a very brief while and led much of her long life in straitened circumstances. That she cared deeply for her husband is clear from several accounts but what is amazing is the dignity and independence with which she led her later life, taking in an orphaned boy of the neighbourhood and bringing him up as well. Janaki was a tower herself, of strength.
Job at Port Trust
My next name would be R. Narayana Aiyar, Senior Accountant at the Madras Port Trust, who was also Treasurer of the Indian Mathematical Society. While there were other members of the latter body who also helped, it was Aiyar who made sure that Ramanujan was given employment at the Port Trust — as a clerk drawing a monthly salary of ₹30. But more importantly, he also managed to get Sir Francis Spring, the powerful Chairman of the Port Trust, interested in Ramanujan.
It was Spring’s involvement that made sure that Ramanujan’s notebooks, beyond the comprehension of most people, were shown to important visitors to Madras. A man who collaborated closely in this was C.L.T. Griffith of the College of Engineering, Madras (then not yet moved to Guindy). Together, Spring and Griffith would make sure that the notebooks were seen by Dr. G.T. Walker, then Director General of Observatories, Simla, and it was he in turn who suggested that they be sent to Professor G.H. Hardy at Cambridge. The subsequent history is well known and so I will just say my third tower would be named jointly after Spring and Griffith.
My fourth and final tower is reserved for the man who practically adopted Ramanujan, especially in his final years when he was desperately ill, short of money, harried by his mother, and ostracised by the orthodox for crossing the ocean. That was the builder baron Thatikonda Namberumal Chetty. It was in Crynant, his palatial home at Chetpet, that Ramanujan spent his final days. The death happened in another of Chetty’s residences in the same area — Gometra. Today Crynant still stands, a vast empty house, while Gometra has long gone. It is said that Namberumal lit Ramanujan’s pyre.
A fine tribute
I also wondered if those who run the Ramanujan Park are aware of a museum for the mathematician that exists in this city. It was the dream of P.K. Srinivasan, a mathematician himself, and made reality by A.T.B. Bose, a businessman. This fine tribute to Ramanujan is in Avvai Kalai Kazhagam, Royapuram. It would be great if the IT Park and museum could collaborate.
(V. Sriram is a writer and historian.)
Published – April 22, 2025 11:09 pm IST