
Paul Erdős in Madras (2019) - happy-go-lucky
https://www.thehindu.com/society/paul-erds-a-legendary-mathematician-in-madras/article28295095.ece
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ar813
Erdős apparently came up with the following poem to break the ice, which is
pretty funny!

This is the city of Madras / The home of the curry and the dal Where Iyers
speak only to Iyengars/ And Iyengars speak only to God.

Was that last line a reference to Ramanujan?

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vram22
Like, and maybe inspired by, that poem about Boston Brahmins:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Brahmin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Brahmin)

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gerdesj
I was enjoying this article because it all rang true to the man. Until this:

"On another trip to Chennai, when Erdős heard of mathematician Srinivasa
Ramanujan’s destitute widow, he wrote her a cheque. This quirky genius gave
away most of his earnings."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan)
\- died in 1920

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s)
\- born in 1913

~~~
vector_spaces
I find this to be a bit more disturbing (in the first wiki article)

> On 14 July 1909, Ramanujan married Janaki (Janakiammal; 21 March 1899 – 13
> April 1994),[25] a girl his mother had selected for him a year earlier and
> who was ten years old when they married.

~~~
ar813
This was unfortunately the norm in his community at the turn of the century. A
rather detailed study about the historical context of marriage among women in
Ramanujam's community (Tamil Brahmins) is here:
[http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46203/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY...](http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46203/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Fuller,%20C_Marriage%20education_Fuller_Marriage%20education_2014.pdf)

From what I understand, it was common across many communities throughout India
(though in Tamil Nadu, primarily among the Brahmins) for girls to be married
before the onset of puberty (with consummation of the marriage only permitted
post-menarche.. at least in theory). I do recall seeing a paper once that
argued that the age of marriage actually became _younger_ for some complicated
reasons under British rule in the early 19th century.. not sure if that's
believable.

As you might guess, I'm from the same community, and my great-grandmother was
married at the age of 9 or 10. While one could attempt to rationalize and
contextualize it, I think that's pointless: it was wrong then, as it is now.

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laichzeit0
Suppose we should destroy all edifices to Ramanujan like we’re doing to all
the slave traders of 100 years ago now?

~~~
apoorvkumar
Not analogous. Sons are practically obligated by family (and indirectly by the
immediate society) to marry even against their will for keeping the tradition.
Also females were considered unfit to get married after a certain (very young)
age creating a pressure on girl's family to find a groom as early as possible.
People created pseudo scientific and religious basis for enforcing these.

It was a social evil has rightly been banned but slavery was both a social
evil and individual maliciousness on part of people who partook in it - and
there were a few black folk too in that group who were selling their own
people. No society 'mandated' slaverer to sell people as a way of life. There
were always other professions if it didn't fit well with their conscience. No
one would make your life hell for not actively selling slaves by making you
into a social outcast.

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cjwoodall
That was just a nice light read. Loved it

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ndsipa_pomu
That was lovely

