A Look into the Family Tree
(Meeting The Ancestors)
Recently I got a request to prepare a rough draft of our family tree. A nephew asked me for the tree to trace his father’s lineage. As I was going through the details I had to put together records from three or four diverse sources (original documents in mother tongue). Then as I was pouring over my attention I came across interesting facts. There were well-educated engineers (one held the position of Regional Engineer for the Indian Railway), a sub-Registrar (recorder of farm holdings and lands), a very erudite scholar of Vedas, and one very observant Hindu priest and a unique conductor of Vedic functions. I wondered what would they think of me? I wish I could speak with some of them; and converse about all sorts of things. How did they overcome their troubles? How did they survive through the lean years, through crop failures, sickness, etc.?
We all may have close companions, spouses, relatives, and friends. With some we could open up and share intimate issues and life’s ordeals. Nobody’s life is perfect in this world. Even queens and royal members have problems. I read somewhere once a European queen was in distress during the First World War. She wanted her citizens be safe and out of mortal danger. All she could do was to pray on her knees. With our esteemed grand parents we could open up our hearts willingly without inhibitions. We could ask our grand mother her achievements, her failures, and her celebrations.
While going through the family tree I came across a name that sent exhilaration through my body. My father is related to Sri S. Narayana. Once he visited our village on some errand and I vaguely remember his personality. He was impeccably dressed with polished shoes. Then very few people in the village would wear shoes; only our math teacher used to leisurely polish his brown shoes during weekends. Later our esteemed relative’s sons also visited us and stayed for a few days while attending to their farm affairs. In the village we knew very few details about Sri Narayana; he served as principal in Madras (Presidency College) and retired in Guntur. If I had gone with my mother to Vijayawada I too would have gotten a glimpse of this elderly scholar in his golden years. But it was not to be, alas; also I would not have appreciated such matters as I was too young, barely in my knickers, still struggling with basic algebra like (a+b) cubed. That’s how I came to know tit-bits of my distant relatives and our ancestry. Much of that legacy of memory got dusted and crusted in the layers of time. More or less I left it out in my native village. Father kept good contact with Sri Narayana’s sons and he attended his son’s marriage also.
After many years I got interested in Srinivasa Ramanujan through an article in Scientific American. There was a renewed interest in his works (Lost Note Books) and with advances in Computer Science people started looking into pi (π). This writer is not into researches in advanced mathematics. There are many interesting results, formulae, and discoveries in Ramanujan's work. The infinite series 1+2+3+4+ ...... .... = -1/12 result really grabbed my attention. It has wonderful applications to physics and other fields. School children should be educated about these results; it does not matter whether young minds can grapple with such stupendous ideas. Such exposure to great minds and humble beginnings inspires everyone.
(This photo is from the Internet.)
Now we have the brute force of software to verify many of his formulae and identities. See the recent article in Wired magazine by Stephen Wolfram. This article tries to bring some cohesion and beauty to the great Indian mathematician’s achievements. For the layperson it is not easy to grasp the fine details of this rarefied field of higher math and number theory. They can still watch the English movie (The Man Who Knew Infinity) to get a foot in the door (of higher mathematics).
For a long time there was only one portrait photo of S. Ramanujan (from his passport). This was taken after he got extremely weak with sickness. The sparkle in his eyes is hypnotic but there is the foreboding sense of early demise, of a life cut short due to undiagnosed illness coupled with poor nutrition (it was during the war time in England). The same photo adorned our college library on the Godavari banks. Then slowly after painful research and digging up the old university records they came up with several more B/W photographs. In one such photograph we find Mr. Narayana next to the legendary mathematician. So, that completed the circuitous connection of our family to the Royal Society Fellow, Ramanujan. My interest and enthusiasm for Ramanujan’s work has swelled up by leaps and bounds since then. I wish all the school children learn more of C V Raman, G N Ramachandran, Ramanujan, M. N. Saha, and other great modern Indian researchers; they worked mostly on the Indian soil and they toiled their entire lives with modest resources. It is a pity the outside world knows more of them than the average Indian citizen. There is some truth to the saying: “A prophet is never known in his homeland (sic)”.
I would be amiss if I do not say a word about our great grand mothers and grand mothers. They transmitted to us the fine culture, Telugu music, and great culinary talents. Without their boundless love where would we be? In the hot humid mosquito ridden and disease prone coastal lands, many generations would have been lost. It was our ancestors’ love and blessings that gave us our health, intelligence, and prosperity. I learnt a lot by looking at our family tree. May I conclude that our forefathers would always inspire and guide me in every endeavor. Copyright 2022 by the author
