A Study in Ambiguities

A book review on Gaurav Suri & Hartosh Singh Bal’s  A Certain Ambiguity.

Defining ambiguity

Ambiguity. How do we define the word ambiguity? This curiosity made me open my thesaurus and find its synonyms, and these include doubt, vagueness, and obscurity. As I opened the electronic copy of A Certain Ambiguity by Gaurav Suri & Hartosh Singh Bal, I was really excited on finding out where the ambiguity is.

A Summary of Doubts

Flashback: this is how the story started. The narrator, which was also the main character named Ravi, has received a calculator as well as a mathematical mystery that puzzled him, both given by his loving mathematician grandfather. It was that moment that he realized that he has a passion for studying it, and his grandpa had known it before him.

After his Bauji (grandfather) died, Ravi never wanted to disappoint him and studied steadfastly. As he had his educational adventure, his viewpoint of mathematics changed from a beloved playmate into a strict concept and a tool for acing studies. He has lost his love for math, although he found another friend and certainly an old friend of Bauji too: jazz music.

Finally, he got to be accepted in the prestigious Stanford University. As he entered the school, he met a lot of friends, especially a friend whom he had not expected to meet again: mathematics. Embarking his college adventure, he tags along his best friend Peter in his quest. He finds a relaxing time visiting a jazz-playing event every Thursday. There he met Nico, a mathematics professor that invited them into enrolling Math 208, or the course “Thinking About Infinity”. Then he met other students which also found the course interesting: PK, Adin, and Claire.

Mathematical concepts that where discussed in the novel highlighted the works of famous mathematicians including Georg Cantor’s Continuum hypothesis, Zeno’s paradoxes, Godel’s Incomplete Theoem, Paul Cohen’s Consistency Theorems and Euclid’s postulates.

However, as the story goes on we find out that his Bauji was imprisoned due to a “blasphemous” account in New Jersey. Ravi found a transcript containing the events that happened during that time. This is where he found the conversation between his Bauji and the judge, being a Christian, turned into a talk about mathematical concepts. After all, Bauji was released from prison, and Ravi was also released from his doubts: his ambiguities of what he wants to be, to follow the footsteps of his grandpa, to be a mathematician.

Certain thoughts for an Uncertain Story

Talking about the story as a whole, I find it fascinating as how mathematics and literature blended in this novel.  Words and numbers captivate the reader of both disciplines. I was even hooked even though I am biology major. Putting mathematical concepts into a novel is a clever thing to attract readers. It was as we term in our field, a “distinct characteristic” of the book.

The diversity of characters presented also contributed to the goodness of the book. Ravi, who is really had doubts on who he wants to be, was being inspired by his grandfather but he had not appreciated it until he saw the transcript of his Bauji’s case. Peter is such a nice guy, making a great companion for Ravi even though he is a business major. Nico is such an enthusiastic professor, and I always wanted a teacher like him. He never lets a three-hour lecture really that boring as he gives away cool math mysteries and the answer behind them. Adin is also the inquisitive type and never lets an unanswered question slip away. Even PK is the type of guy that also gives a nice argument everytime Nico presents problems and questions. Claire, who is also a clever gal that always tries to prove equations in her ways, and who later became Ravi’s woman, is also brilliant. The judge, John Taylor, also has an interesting personality since he never let his religion affect his decision on Bauji’s case and was really interested on the certainties on his field. The authors have firmly established the characters, which is quite good.

The book opens with its first mathematical problem: the divisibility of a six-digit number from repeating a three digit number in the same order and can be evenly divided into 13, 11, and 7, getting the first three digit number as the final answer. That sole problem was cool, but proving it is way much cooler, that if we multiply 13, 11, and 7 we get 1001 and was just divided to make it like a magic trick. Neat, don’t you think? Another cool part is the Continuum hypothesis with the question “Can a runner really reach a fix distance when his pathway can be divided into infinite decimal numbers?” I mean if one is not aware of it, of course, he can. But in a mathematical viewpoint, it can also be impossible since the distance can be divided infinitely, counting all the decimal numbers. Oh, it’s clever!

I never expected that Ravi’s love story was presented in the book since I was expecting it to be a story about a grandson and his life with mathematics. Even though their love story is not exquisitely written, it was, as I say, a “cute” side-dish.

Another thing that made me cling on the pages is its incorporation of my favorite literature character Sherlock Holmes. I was quite happy seeing his name on the earlier pages but as I went further, the gang discussed and dissected one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes short stories: The Red-Headed League, which was a very nice short story for me. Like me (as well as my friends), Ravi, Nico, Claire and Adin were Holmes fans, and we can relate after all. J

Conclusion

Ambiguity. Yes, we all have it. From an embryo in the mother’s womb on when he will get out or setting a date of the funeral of a 90-year old woman, a person’s life will not be complete without the doubts in his life. However, these ambiguities make life a complete package of experience. It will make you learn and make you decide who you are and what you want to be. That’s how I think Ravi, and me, define ambiguity.

Total word count: 1015 (excluding the title and subtitles)