The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Noted mathematician remembered

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Monday, Jun 25, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Noted mathematician remembered

Staff Reporter

Friends, associates pay rich tributes to P.K. Srinivasan

music legend: Composer Illayaraja obliging young fans with requests for autographs at the second remembrance day of legendary mathematician late P.K. Srinivasan in Chennai recently.

CHENNAI: He saw everything in math and math, in everything — this is how friends and associates of P.K. Srinivasan (PKS, as he was fondly called) described him at the second remembrance day organised here recently.

The mathematics educator strongly believed that branding a student as being “dull” did not mean that the student was a failure. It was the failure of a teacher and the system, the noted mathematician would say.

Music director Illayaraja, in his tribute, said he completely agreed with PKS’ view point about mathematics reflecting in everything we see and do. “There is a lot of mathematics in music. Not just in pieces where the thalam is explicitly seen, but also in music that does not follow any specific thalam,” he said.

Demonstrating this through a tamil viruttam, the maestro said a particular speed and measured pauses in between made delivery effective. If the tempo were slower, it wouldn’t be as effective, he explained.

“Music is not just in complex calculations. Rhythm or mathematics (kalapramanam) is inherent, though subtle, in every phrase. In its natural course and flow, all forms of music have mathematics in them,” he said.

In a painting, there was mathematics in symmetry. In saint Thyagaraja’s compositions, there was mathematics in structure, he added, citing the saint composer’s ‘Brova Barama’ in raga Bahudari as an example. < /p>

“However, we find mathematics and calculations being used merely in one’s quest for money or power,” Mr. Illayaraja said.

A. Nagarajan, Director and Director General (Training), urged students to see mathematics as an instrument for everyday living. “It is no demon,” he said.

R. Vijaya Lakshmi, senior mathematics teacher, AMTI, recalled the passion and enthusiasm PKS had for the subject. Even while in the ICCU before his death, PKS was busy constructing magic squares, speakers said. H. Guhan, alumnus of Padma Seshadri (K.K.Nagar) and past president of the PKS Math Club in the school spoke.

The meeting was organised by PKS’ family members and the PKS Math Club of PSBB (K.K.Nagar).

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