Infinity146;s a Lonely Place

Her mother Shreene 8212; a product of Mahesh8217;s stark discipline as well 8212; doesn8217;t dare go against his will but in her heart believes too much education will ruin Rumi8217;s chances of a good marriage.

What no one realises is that Rumi is a normal young girl and numbers do not consume her the same way. She wants the freedom of time. To make friends. To read books about girls who live in boarding schools. To fit in. But Rumi 8212; the immigrant 8220;coloured8221; girl who dresses strangely 8212; isn8217;t given the time to do so. Instead her life is regimented every step of the way. She rebels in her own little ways. She lies, she calls friends over when she is not supposed to. She calls the emergency service 999 just to talk. And she develops an addiction to cumin seeds, devouring them almost by the kilo. She enjoys the bitter, burning sensation 8212; it serves as a constant reminder of her own abbreviated life.

Finally, by the time Rumi clears her A levels at the age of 15 and is on her way to Oxford University you can8217;t help but cheer her along. When she uses her liberation to find a life and crop her skirts, you almost want to help her find a pair of scissors. And when, intoxicated on freedom, she forgets all about numbers and crosses the final boundary to start a flirtation with a Muslim boy you jump up from your chair and start to applaud. But sure enough that chapter too ends in gloom.

While Nikita Lalvani is an incredible storyteller with a wry sense of humour 8212; it8217;s there in her turn of phrase, in the manner in which Rumi looks at her own life 8212; Gifted is weighed down with this sense of artificial suspense. A feeling that only bad things can happen to Indian immigrant families. A sense that is helped along by the cliches that she creates 8212; that keep getting in the way of making this good book into a wonderful one. Each one of the characters 8212; with the exception of the heroine 8212; is so much a caricature of the great Indian family you begin to second guess even their tone. And you are not often wrong.

But then there is Rumi. And in her you can see why Lalvani made it to the Man Booker longlist this year. Imagine what would happen if Meera Syal8217;s Anita and Me met Vikram Seth8217;s A Suitable Boy only to be subverted by Curtis Sittenfeld8217;s Prep. It could only mean a new voice in literature that has to be heard. And read.

G.H. Hardy8217;s Original Prodigy
Srinivasa ramanujan is arguably the most famous math prodigy of all time. His collaboration with the Cambridge don, G.H. Hardy, is a story that brings together so many strands. David Leavitt8217;s forthcoming novel, The Indian Clerk, returns to this story. The book is scheduled to be released in September. Till then, here is an extract from the book:
8220;The letter arrives the last Tuesday in January 1913. At thirty-five, Hardy is a man of habit. Every morning he eats his breakfast, then takes a walk through the Trinity grounds 8212; a solitary walk, during which he kicks at the gravel on the paths as he tries to untangle the details of the proof he8217;s working on. If the weather is fine, he thinks to himself, Dear God, please let it rain, because I don8217;t really want sun pouring through my windows today; I want gloom and shadows so that I can work by lamplight. If the weather is bad, he thinks, Dear God, please don8217;t bring back the sun as it will interfere with my ability to work, which requires gloom and shadow and lamplight8230;
8220;Because he is a few minutes ahead of schedule8230; Hardy sits down, opens the envelope, and removes the sheaf of papers that it contains8230;
8220;8216;Dear Sir,8217; he reads.
8220;I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust Office at Madras on a salary of only pound;20 per annum. I am now about 23 years of age. I have had no University education but I have undergone the ordinary school course. After leaving school I have been employing the spare time at my disposal to work at Mathematics. I have not trodden the conventional regular course which is followed in a University course, but I am striking out a new path for myself. I have made a special investigation of divergent series in general and the results I get are termed by the local mathematicians as 8216;startling.8217;
8220;He skips to the end of the letter 8212; 8216;S. Ramanujan8217; is the author8217;s name 8212; then goes back and reads the rest.8221;