A Disappearing Number - A Play

There could be occasions when you rush to the nearest mirror and flew a flying kiss to yourself, pat on your back, buy a chocolate for yourself; for you've taken time out of nowhere and presented yourself a opportunity to, perhaps, read a book or see a friend or do anything you're fond of. I've done something similar today; I made it a point a watch the play named "A Disappearing Number". This moment, I thank myself for it.

I haven't done any homework before going to the play. I knew only the bare minimum facts about it - it's all about the collaboration between Hardy and the Indian mathematician, Ramanujan. Arriving too early to the place gave me a chance to know a bit more. And when my friend joined me, he had his own bit to add. The play started tad late and we were quite unsure of our maths skills helping us to understand the plot.

And suddenly a middle aged women rushes onto the stage and starts teaching basic math. I took that as pre-play guidance or whatever, to play that was full of maths. She keeps going on with her math on the blackboard and a gentleman walks onto the stage, "Imagine, if this were to be the whole play!". That's when I realized that the play has already begun. That moment I knew, I'm gonna have few of the most treasured hours of my life.

I wonder if I can actually write more about this play. For when it was happening, it was too many things to grasp. And when it ended, it was just too overwhelming. The whole theme is about math, at least, that is what one tries to convince you, with lot of numbers, mathematical equations, complexities shown, discussed and referred to during the play. The lady who was teaching maths at the beginning of the play, is a contemporary mathematician who's attached to Ramanujan's work. A business man is attached to her. Ramanujan is anyway attached to his math. Hardy finds himself too fond of Ramanujan. And these attachments are linked across time and space. The interweaving of these links, taking us across time and space, with beautiful theatrical effects and wonderful dialogues make it a treat, an experience.

But for me, this play is about more than math. We keep trying relentlessly to answer the questions haunting us. We do that by different ways, by different ways. Some try to seek answers from religion, some from philosophy, some from art, some from science and this play is attempt to answer the questions through mathematics. And how math can get you the answers is what this play is all about, aptly summarized in following lines:

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas... The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way... It may be very hard to define mathematical beauty, but that is just as true of beauty of any kind we may not know quite what we mean by a beautiful poem, but that does not prevent us from recognizing one when we read it.


I'm spell bound by the screenplay. This one comes next only to "Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind", for me.

And yes, the following's gonna be my favourite lines for sometime to come.

"1+1/2+1/4+1/8+1/16+.................. = 2.

I love you."

If that has to make sense, you gotta watch the play. Don't miss it, if it's in your city!

And thanks to my friend, who made the evening even more enjoyable.