Date:19/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/19/stories/2005101901131001.htm

Back Plight of classical mathematics

This refers to the article "Lessons from Nash and the Nobel" (Business Line, October 18).

I couldn't agree more with the author when he says: "It was his good fortune that Ramanujan was noticed and nourished by Prof Hardy and was not left behind by status-seeking officials and jealousy-ridden pseudo-intellectuals."

It is unfortunate that currently there are hundreds of such status-seeking officials and jealousy-ridden pseudo intellectuals.

I remember the euphoria that was generated when Prof Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize.

A number of discussions and seminars with participants from fields such as Economics, Mathematics, Statistics and other related fields were held.

A senior professor suggested a series of lectures on `Game Theory'.

But after one or two lectures, the hall was empty only with the teacher and the classical book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neauman and Oscar Morgenstern.

A situation could arise when classical mathematics is no longer appreciated.

K. Kalyanaraman

Chennai

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