Ramanujan’s works cover vast areas including prime numbers, hyper-geometric series, modular functions, elliptic functions, mock theta functions, even magic squares, apart from serious works on the geometry of ellipses, squaring the circle, etc. One of the tributes to Ramanujan states that ‘every integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan’s. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918.

Ramanujan used to say, ‘An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God.’ For him, the understanding of numbers was a process of spiritual revelation and connection. In his investigations into pure mathematics, he drew extraordinary conclusions that mystified his colleagues, but were eventually proven to be right. He opened a universe of theory that till today is reaping applications. The landscape of the infinite was to Ramanujan a reality of both mathematics and spirit and his love for numbers led him to number theory. Despite chronic health problems, he was consumed by mathematics throughout his short life without failure ever deterring him.

The Crash

Public lecture and interaction at the DMC Auditorium, Darbhanga

23 December 2012

When you set out on difficult missions, they often bring difficult challenges that may sometimes produce temporary setbacks. The test of humanity is accepting failure and continuing to try until you achieve success. Managing failure is the ability that is the essence of leadership. Let me now share an experience in this regard from my professional life.

When I think of Prof. Satish Dhawan, many instances of his leadership come to mind. I was project director for the first experimental launch of SLV-3. On 10 August 1979, the vehicle took off beautifully at T-0 and the first stage went as predicted. The second stage was initiated but, within a few seconds, we witnessed the vehicle tumbling and we lost the flight in the Bay of Bengal. It was 8 a.m. The whole team—despite having worked all through the previous day and night, in addition to many preceding days of hard work—was busy collecting data and trying to establish the reason for the failure. Meanwhile, I was called by Prof. Dhawan to attend a press conference. Before the press conference, Prof. Dhawan told me that he was going to handle the situation, but that I should be present along with many of the senior scientists and technologists.

The room was full of people from the media and an atmosphere of gloom was prevalent. Many questions were asked, some very powerful and thoughtful and, of course, there was criticism. Prof. Dhawan announced, ‘Friends, today we had the experimental launch of SLV-3 to put the Rohini satellite in orbit. It was a partial success. It is our first mission with multiple technologies in a launch vehicle. We have proved many technologies in this launch but we still have to prove some more. We have stumbled but not fallen flat. Above all, I realize my team members have to be given all the technological support for the next mission to succeed.’ Subsequently, a failure analysis board established the cause and we proceeded with the preparations for the second launch.