Dec 22nd marks the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, which is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India.
I was blessed to take part in the 138th birth anniversary celebration in Ramanujan Museum, Chennai, which is a special place housing Ramanujan’s original hand written letters to Prof G.H. Hardy and others collected by revered Math educator P.K.Srinivas.
My humble gratitude goes to Prof Bose Sir co-founder of the Museum and correspondent of Kavi Bharati school and Prof. Sivaraman from Pie Mathematics association for arranging this event and giving me an opportunity to address the gathering.
The museum is a must visit for all students, educators and parents, for it holds the memories and dialogue of the legend Ramanujan and get inspired from the legacy he left behind.
The students of Kavi Bharati school put forth an exemplary performance of dance, music and a talk show: all of them related to Math concepts. It is certainly heart warming to see the efforts of teachers and students to celebrate this day with reverence.
When it was time for me to address the gathering, I already understood that the students had quite a good knowledge about Ramanujan’s life and his accomplishments with Hardy. So I focussed on how students can recognize the qualities of the legend, two of his notable works on Bertrand conjecture on prime number, Goldbach conjecture in simple words and quoted few real life solutions which had Ramanujan’s work as the backbone.
Second half of my talk focussed on making students “Think like a Mathematician” with a brief activity on comparing fractions and how students can observe number patterns & make simple conjectures and get a sneak peek of thinking like a mathematician.
The evening spent with students, teachers and Prof Bose Sir on this special day will be ever etched in my memory. Signing off with the hope that the talk could have ignited sparks on students to take the legacy of our great Indian Mathematician’s legacy forward.
