The Man Who Knew Infinity Page #6

He was here.

(COUGHS)

DOCTOR:
Your condition has worsened.

You may not have long.

You should set your affairs in order.

Do you have any family here?

Anyone?

(BREATHING GETS FASTER)

(TRAIN APPROACHES)

(TRAIN BRAKES SQUEAL)

MAN:
No!

(WOMAN SCREAMS)

Sir, something's happened in London.

Call me a taxi, will you?

DOCTOR:
He was very lucky with the train.

The conductor saw him before he jumped.

The danger is his lungs.

Yes, he's had a bad cough for some time.

It is no cough.

He has advanced tuberculosis.

Well, is... Is there nothing we could do?

Pray.

It will take a miracle.

RAMANUJAN:
Mr. Hardy.

I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you.

Gave me quite a scare.

Self-prophesying.

My wife has forgotten me.

I have no one.

I understand that

you might feel like that, but...

You should have told me.

I could have helped.

(WIND WHISTLING)

You know,

it just as easily could have been me.

Well, I'm glad it wasn't.

You have cause enough with Ramanujan.

(CHUCKLES)

I'll be thinking of you both.

Where will you go?

Oh, I'll go down the road to Oxford.

And I'll wait for

them to beg to have me back here.

Hmm.

Good-bye, Harold.

Bye, Bertie.

Too bad he couldn't take Hardy with him.

I still don't see what

he bloody contributes.

Yeah, I had words with Major MacMahon.

It seems that Ramanujan's on the

verge of a major breakthrough.

That's right. Partitions.

Oh, that's impossible.

Hmm. Remains to be seen.

(SNIFFS)

God, it's freezing in here.

Are you warm enough?

Try sleeping. I have to go to that

pipe just so I don't freeze.

It would have been

better for all had the train done its job.

Oh, yeah, you could

have been reincarnated as a pigeon turd.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Sorry I've not

been able to be a better friend

to you in the traditional sense.

I know you've needed one,

but I'm not very good at all of that.

I never have been.

Life for me is...

It's always been mathematics.

You wanted to know how I get my ideas.

Mmm.

My God.

Namagiri.

She speaks to me.

Puts formulas on my tongue when I sleep,

sometimes when I pray.

Do you believe me?

Because if you are my friend, then you

will know that I'm telling you the truth.

If you are truly my friend.

But I don't believe in God.

I don't believe in anything I can't prove.

Then you can't believe in me.

Don't you see?

An equation has no meaning to me

unless it expresses a thought of God.

Maybe it is better

that we just remain what we were.

When I was at school,

I remember one of my chaplains saying,

"You know God exists

because He's like a kite,

"and you can feel the tug on the

string and know that He's up there."

I said, "What if there's no

wind and the kite can't fly?"

No, I... I can't believe in God.

I don't believe

in the immemorial wisdom of the East,

but I do believe in you.

Thank you.

I very much want to

finish what we started.

Good.

I brought some calculations

in case you were feeling a bit better.

And then I want to go home.

Home?

As soon as I am able.

Or if I should die, you have to

promise that you will get me home.

You're not going to die.

Oh, this came for you.

I'll leave you in peace.

Try and do what the doctors ask.

I know it's not in your nature.

JANAKI:
I will never know

why you have chosen to forsake me.

Just a letter in response

to the multitude I have sent

you would have been enough.

I have gone to be with my brother

and his family where I will remain.

This last letter is to say good-bye.

What happened?

I don't know. He's a terrible patient.

Doesn't believe

in medicine. Won't eat anything.

Just prays to his Namagiri.

Well, I'd be praying too

if you were my doctor.

And I'm a bloody atheist.

(COUGHING)

This is my fault.

(RASPING) Yes, maybe.

We are within .004.

This can't die with me, Mr. Hardy.

You're not going to die.

If this is correct,

(PUFFING) you'll make a difference.

(GASPING)

I have the proofs.

My God.

He did it. He really did it.

Now he must be a Fellow.

Oh, be practical, Hardy.

He'll only fail again.

Not with your help, he won't.

Besides, there is another way.

If he was a...

If he had a Royal Fellowship...

- An FRS?

- Mmm.

He's Indian!

MacMahon, listen to me.

He really needs this.

(SIGHS)

See that this gets

to Lieutenant Littlewood.

Littlewood? Where?

Mr. Hobson, Mr. Baker, I have someone

who wishes to talk to you

about Mr. Ramanujan.

Gentlemen.

Trinity denied him.

I just want

the opportunity to make the case.

Try him on his merits.

Suit yourself. But I think you'll

find the result will be the same.

- Hardy.

- Morning.

Now what have you got

yourself involved with?

John.

Good of you to come.

Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

So, now we see the work on partitions

and the enormous

breakthrough that has been achieved.

All this, mind you,

by a man whose limitations

of knowledge when I met him

were as startling as was its profundity.

Opinions may differ as to the

importance of Ramanujan's work

and the influence it may or may not

have on the mathematics of the future,

but one gift it does show

is its profound and invincible originality.

Mr. Littlewood once told me

that "every positive integer is one

of Ramanujan's personal friends."

I believe this to be true.

He told me that

an equation for him had no meaning

unless it expressed a thought of God.

Well, despite everything in my

being set to the contrary,

perhaps he is right.

For is this not exactly our

justification for pure mathematics?

We are merely explorers of infinity

in the pursuit of absolute perfection.

We do not invent

these formulae, they already exist

and lie in wait for only the very

brightest of minds, like Ramanujan,

ever to divine and prove.

So, in the end,

I have been forced to consider,

who are we to question Ramanujan,

let alone God?

Thank you.

(CHATTER)

It's bad enough that

this charlatan has wasted our time once.

And now Hardy has dragged

the only person in the world

who will support him out of the trenches.

No, enough is

enough with this... This Ramujin.

Littlewood is not the only one.

I think he has the

finest mind I've seen in my lifetime.

And his name is Ramanujan.

LITTLEWOOD:
Hardy?

I'm a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He wrote to me.

Janaki.

(SOBBING)

If you had gone to him,

he would never return.

(SOBS)

Are you really gonna go home?

War is over. It is time.

Well, as a Fellow of the Royal Society,

they're gonna be really proud of you.

- I owe you so much.

- No, no, no.

It's I who owe you.

Come on. Come on the grass. You're late.

But, sir, I can't.

I'm not a Fellow over here.

Are you sure about that?

Well, as an FRS, what could they say?

Repeat after me.

"I, Srinivas Ramanujan,

"elected Fellow of Trinity College..."

I, Srinivas Ramanujan,

elected Fellow of Trinity College.

Sorry I'm late. Bloody cab driver got lost.

Should have known from his number.

And what was that?

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