This
is an ambitious attempt of reviewing the book entitled A Certain Ambiguity by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal.
The book is a mathematical novel
about a boy (eventually became a man) named Ravi and his journey in life. Ravi
was greatly influenced by his grandfather whom he calls Bauji (which means
grandfather in India). Ravi received a calculator from Bauji for his 12th
birthday. (I also had my first personal calculator at that age but I was not as
enthusiastic about it as compared to Ravi.) He loved the mathematical problems
presented to him by his grandfather and his ‘aha’ moments were very remarkable
for me. He really loves his grandfather as well as his mathematics. When Bauji
died, it was no shock that Ravi was devastated. (You would be if you are that
close to your grandfather.) Ravi wanted to become like his Bauji and Bauji
longs for Ravi to be a mathematician because he saw that it was innate in him.
It was easy for Ravi to get A’s in
his classes during high school and he passed at Stanford University for
college. His mother was worried about the dues they need to pay for Ravi to
continue his studies but fortunately Bauji left money that was intended for
Ravi to be able to study college in a good school in America. When Ravi flew to
California, the first person he met was Peter Cage. In fact, they were
roommates. He was constantly reminded by his mother to just finish his course
because he needs to be earning due to financial difficulties. It wasn’t hard
for Ravi to achieve high grades in his classes but no certain study yet has caught
his attention. Not until Peter introduced a math class he was going to be
enrolled to under a brilliant professor by the name of Dr. Nico Aliprantis. They
had met Nico in an event where he had played the saxophone. Ravi was also in
love in music just as his grandfather. However, Ravi was still doubtful if he
is to enroll in that class. He needs to finish up his majors and they lack
financially. Fortunately, he decided to take the class because it is the first
time he found an interest in and Peter offered him a loan. He knew that if he
told his mother about his plans, she would be mad and he was right.
Nevertheless, he pursued enrolling. This was the start of his ‘journey’ in
mathematics.
He found his circle of friends (PK,
Adin, and Claire) in this math class. The class discussed about the certainties
of theorems by mathematicians. Nico left a problem during their first meeting. After
the class, Nico spotted Claire (whom turned out to be Ravi’s destiny) and Ravi
and called them to step into his office. It seemed that only the two of them
got the correct answer though their approaches were different. Then the
conversation went on until Ravi has mentioned his grandfather, Vijay Sahni. It
appeared that Nico had read a book written by Sahni and quickly looked for it.
Claire was keen enough to observe a footnote saying that the author (whom is
Vijay Sahni) wrote the book when he was imprisoned. This was a fact
unbelievable for Ravi. He had never knew of this, so he quickly called for his
mom who also new nothing. Wanting to know the truth behind, they went to
Claire’s mother whom happened to be a librarian to seek for information about
the case. Fortunately, Claire’s mom was happy to help and was very helpful.
Ravi had accessed the newspapers in Morisette, New Jersey, the small town where
his grandfather was imprisoned.
As he read the newspapers, he found
out that Bauji was imprisoned due to his beliefs that God does not exist. He questioned
the certainty of Christians about their God. The town of Morisette being full
of people believing in Christ, they were maddened about this visiting Hindu. He
was then accused of blasphemy. Due to the disputes this was creating, the town
sheriff was forced to arrest Vijay Sahni. However, the governor was not that
sure if the case needs to proceed to trial or if Vijay Sahni needs to be left
alone. With this, the governor assigned Judge John Taylor to decide with
proceedings. He talked to with Vijay Sahni and these conversations aimed to
determine whether Sahni was just driven by his emotions at the time he said
what he said, or he did blaspheme the name of the Lord.
Ravi got hold of the transcripts and
he waited patiently week after week because he was only allowed to read a
transcript a week since these papers are very old and antique. Within the
conversations, both the judge and Sahni were reviewing the concepts and
theorems of mathematicians such as Euclid and Pythagoras. These theorems were
trying to determine the certainty in mathematics and relating it to reality.
After the judge had numerous conversations with Sahni, he sent a letter to
Sahni saying that his decision was to proceed with the trial but there was a
twist after that because when they had their last conversation, Sahni realized
in their discussion of Euclid’s postulates that there could really be no
certainties.
Ravi had an interview with a
well-known bank but he was quite doubtful about taking the job. His mom was
very happy because he got the job offer but he wasn’t that interested. Also,
Nico thinks that Ravi has a blood of a mathematician rushing through his veins
and offered him a scholarship on doctoral studies. Ravi was uncertain but
followed his heart and interest; of course those were Mathematics and Claire.
This novel makes me realize that you
can never be a hundred percent sure of something. I suggest that before you
read the book; make sure that your foundation is solid rock in what you believe
in because I am quite sure that it will really try to shake your beliefs. I
never realized that you could write a novel about math or with math in it.
Though I found myself lost in some mathematical problems introduced in the
story, it was a pretty good decision finishing this book; KUDOS TO THE AUTHOR.
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