Random journal entry …
11/12/23 Fibonacci
The date reminded me of Fibonacci sequence. And that sparked
a self-satisfied joy. I still love numbers! When did this love affair begin?
Some time in high school? Or even before?
I remember a library. Not the first encounter with one, when
we lived in Medical School Campus – there, I borrowed story books. But another.
Smaller, with narrower shelves. A metal bookshelf in the corner. About 5 feet
tall and maybe 2-3 feet wide, dusty, and seemingly forgotten.
The books were thin, no tomes on this shelf. They had mostly
black, grey or moss green hard bindings. Very much like the canvas and cardboard
bindings Babuji used to make at home to harden and preserve our textbooks so
they could survive handing down from siblings and cousins. Only his were always
a deep maroon color and smelled of homemade arrowroot glue. It was the
immediate familiarity of the bindings that drew me into exploring the books on
this lonesome shelf.
The number series book had a black cover. How fascinating it
was. Who was the author? Ramanujan? Unlikely … but somehow the name resonates
deep. How I turned the pages with wonder … if only I could unlock the mysteries
set in these pages, off-white and yellowing with age … concealing the knowledge
of old times. The simple typewritten font exposed a number-series. A sequence
of numbers extending to infinity in their own cryptic dance. Their secret
rhythm and moves folding onto themselves and then unfurling, revealing itself
only to the best mathematician. Tempting, growing, swelling, extending …. reaching
crescendo into perpetuity.
I wished I could dance with them. Take one step, one more, then two … follow the series, past the ‘dot dot dots’, off the page, beyond the written words, into the unknown …. where the future promises the sum of all past and present.
[P.S. – Aadi is fascinated with my obsession with numbers. Repeatedly
asks me to explain why I set my alarms at 7:43 or 8:42 … maybe this entry will
help him understand 😊]
