My Search for Ramanujan: How I Learned to Count

“The son of a prominent Japanese mathematician who came to the United States after World War II, Ken Ono was raised on a diet of high expectations and little praise. Rebelling against his pressure-cooker of a life, Ken determined to drop out of high school to follow his own path. To obtain his father’s approval, he invoked the biography of the famous Indian mathematical prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan, whom his father revered, who had twice flunked out of college because of his single-minded devotion to mathematics.

Ono describes his rocky path through college and graduate school, interweaving Ramanujan’s story with his own and telling how at key moments, he was inspired by Ramanujan and guided by mentors who encouraged him to pursue his interest in exploring Ramanujan’s mathematical legacy.

Picking up where others left off, beginning with the great English mathematician G.H. Hardy, who brought Ramanujan to Cambridge in 1914, Ono has devoted his mathematical career to understanding how in his short life, Ramanujan was able to discover so many deep mathematical truths, which Ramanujan believed had been sent to him as visions from a Hindu goddess. And it was Ramanujan who was ultimately the source of reconciliation between Ono and his parents.

Ono’s search for Ramanujan ranges over three continents and crosses paths with mathematicians whose lives span the globe and the entire twentieth century and beyond. Along the way, Ken made many fascinating discoveries. The most important and surprising one of all was his own humanity.”

Table of Contents

Part I: My Life Before Ramanujan
Chapter 1: Tiger Boy
Chapter 2: My Parents’ Generation
Chapter 3: My Childhood (1970–1984)
Chapter 4: An Unexpected Letter
Chapter 5: My Escape

Part II: The Legend of Ramanujan
Chapter 6: Little Lord
Chapter 7: A Creative Genius
Chapter 8: An Addiction
Chapter 9: The Goddess
Chapter 10: Purgatory
Chapter 11: Janaki
Chapter 12: I Beg to Introduce Myself
Chapter 13: These Formulas Defeated Me Completely
Chapter 14: Permission from the Goddess
Chapter 15: Together at Last
Chapter 16: Culture Shock
Chapter 17: Triumph over Racism
Chapter 18: English Malaise
Chapter 19: Homecoming
Chapter 20: The Tragic End

Part III: My Life Adrift
Chapter 21: I Believe in Santa
Chapter 22: College Boy
Chapter 23: Erika
Chapter 24: The Pirate Professor
Chapter 25: Growing Pains

Part IV: Finding My Way
Chapter 26: My Teacher
Chapter 27: Hitting Bottom
Chapter 28: A Miracle
Chapter 29: My Hardy
Chapter 30: Hitting My Stride
Chapter 31: Bittersweet Reunion
Chapter 32: I Count Now
Chapter 33: The Idea of Ramanujan
Chapter 34: My Spirituality