Ratan unites Ramanujan & Ramakrishnan at Royal Society

This is a little anecdote about how a bust of the mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, came to be installed in Professor Sir Venkatraman's office at the Royal Society in London.

First, the dramatis personae:

Ratan Tata, former chairman of Tata, is considered an all round good egg in England.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) worked in Cambridge with G.H. Hardy and is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He was played by actor Dev Patel in a recent movie, The Man Who Knew Infinity.

Professor Sir Venkatraman ("Venki") Ramakrishnan, the 2009 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, is the first Indian to be elected president of the Royal Society, the most prestigious scientific club in the world. He works at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology and is a fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge.

Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar (1910-1995) was a fellow of the Royal Society and winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for physics.

Over a south Indian vegetarian lunch, Venki told me why he decided to publicise The Man Who Knew Infinity by holding screenings of the movie both in London and in Cambridge.

Back in 1918, after facing much racism, Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and then a fellow of Trinity College - all this is depicted in the movie. In fact, at one point, the fellows of the Royal Society protest that Rama- nujan cannot be elected to join them because he is, well, Indian.

"I realised that I was going to be president on the 100th anniversary of Ramanujan's election to the Royal Society, so I thought it would be good if the Royal Society did something about that (the film's release)," recalled Venki.

"Times have changed," he argued. "The reality is that electing an Indian to the Royal Society in 1918 was also pretty forward looking at that time. You have to look at the status of Indians in the broader society. So in a way the Royal Society and Trinity College were both forward looking for their time. People focus on the racism but you have to judge people by the standards of their time."

Venki also talked of a visit to the Royal Society by Ratan Tata who was making some funding available.

"Our historian, who also runs the library, brought out the bust of Ramanujan that was presented to the Royal Society by Chandrashekhar," said Venki.

The bust, by sculptor Paul T. Granlund, was presented to the Royal Society on May 11, 1994, by Chandrasekhar.

"I saw the bust and I liked it so now it is sitting in my office," said Venki, whose own portrait will eventually join those of other past presidents such as Sir Isaac Newton.

Wife beaters

In many Indian areas of Britain, this would, sadly, not be a trick question: "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

More than 50 years after Indian immigration to the UK began in earnest, the shame of domestic violence remains as real as ever. A women's group, Southall Black Sisters, is still very much in business.

In parts of the Pakistani community, which has witnessed several horrific "honour killings", the problem is even more acute, which explains why the government had to make forced marriages, for example, a criminal offence.

And domestic violence has been the gripping theme of recent episodes of The Archers, Radio 4's soap opera about everyday farming folk. The trial of Helen Tichener on charges of wounding her husband Rob Tichener was followed by 5 million listeners. The whole nation appears relieved that last Sunday Helen was found not guilty of attempted murder and wounding with intent. She had suffered mental and physical abuse and marital rape.

In the past there were hints that Rob was not the perfect gentleman he pretended to be. He did not like a dress Helen has worn especially for him (shades here of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca). On Sunday, we had one jury member insisting Helen was guilty because of his own personal experience (shades of Twelve Any Men?)

Helen's traumatic experience has not ended, though. She will have to fight her controlling husband for custody of the children.

Shami kebabed

Sharmishta ("Shami") Chakrabarti, 47, former director of the human rights group, Liberty, was formally introduced to the House of Lords last week as Lady Chakrabarti of Kennington. She will sit on the Labour benches.

She is the third Bengali to enter the upper house after Satyendra Prasanno Sinha, Lord Sinha of Raipur (1863-1928), who was made a hereditary peer in 1919, and Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya, 76, founder of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, who was ennobled in 2004.

Shami has been targeted by the Jewish lobby - unfairly in my opinion - for her report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. It is alleged that as a thank you to Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader who nominated her for a peerage, Shami moderated her criticism of what the Jewish lobby considers institutional racism in the party. The main problem stems from Jewish pupils being singled out by Islamic groups at university. This is society's problem - not a Labour one.

Defending David

Another young Indian, Jitesh Gadhia, 46, an investment banker, took his seat in the Lords last week as Baron Gadhia of Northwood, a London suburb with a wealthy desi population. He took his oath on the Rig Veda which he gifted to Parliament.

Lord Gadhia is among Indians determined to protect David Cameron's legacy from his enemies, many inside the Conservative Party, who want to disparage the progressive former Prime Minister's achievements.

"History will judge him to have been a great reforming prime minister, who brought the country back from the financial brink," said Lord Gadhia at his celebration lunch. "He was also a great friend of India... he did more than any other holder of his office to engage with the British Indian community. He will be a great loss to Parliament."

I agree. Cameron was not without fault - he messed up in a big way by attacking Libya. But he has been the most pro-Indian prime minister Britain has ever had. Perhaps Calcutta University should give him an honorary degree and India invite him to be some sort of roving ambassador.

Indian summer

Newspaper report from last Tuesday: "Glorious afternoon sunshine pushed the mercury to 34.4°C (93.9°F) in Gravesend, Kent, at 2.18pm, the Met Office said. It is the highest September temperature in Britain in more than 100 years."

As I came out of the cool of the house, a heat wave hit me - taking me back to childhood days in Patna when school would begin at dawn and we would be home, inside darkened rooms, well before noon.

Tittle tattle

Australia-born chemist-turned-lawyer, Jane Stapleton, who last week succeeded mathematician Frank Kelly as Master of Christ's College, Cambridge - she is the first woman to hold the post in over 500 years - is still called Master.

In her first dinner speech, she referred to a headline in the student newspaper, Varsity, about the dizzying heights the college had reached in the university league table assessing academic performance: "Christ has risen."