Just watched The Man Who Knew Infinity ... A genius like him died at the age of 32. What all he could have achieved if he lived longer. What the world would have gained if he didn't die so soon. Perhaps the Black Holes would have a different understanding.
He was a great Mathematician, perhaps the greatest since Newton (as Littlewood describes). But would he have lived a little longer (at least), if he had changed his food habit and taken care of his health in the usually cold and rainy Cambridge; which is so much different from a very hot and sunny Kumbakonam.
People of cold countries eat meat for a reason. The food needs to keep them warm as well as make them full. While rice and sambar is a perfect food for hot and sultry South India, its just useless, and perhaps, harmful in the cold of Europe.
Was his food more important than being alive? Is that what dogma and superstition do to us? He was a very religious man and I wish that his religion was a little more flexible; and put more value on people's life than on some traditions and rituals which may not hold good in different circumstances.
But, is it religion which can be blamed or the people who misinterpret them without perspective?
