The Infinities of Life

A Certain Ambiguity: A Book Review 

“An exploration of the greatest discoveries of Math that also looks at larger questions of faith, reason, freedom and choice”—Kala Ramesh, The Hindu

     Set during the modern age of today, A Certain Ambiguity offers both the thrill of a novel and the teaching of a textbook. With its touch of fiction, philosophical intrigues and onset mathematical ideas, I can say that it’s definitely a new breed of a novel. A mathematical novel wrapped intrinsically with a thread of infinities and boundaries in life. Indeed, it was a captivating plot for a mathematical novel.

     Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal’s A Certain Ambiguity interested me from the day I first read the blurb for the book. I finally managed to get my hands on a copy, and it surprised me. Plot, writing characterization—they were all up to the mark, and the thing I really liked about this book? It’s a stand-alone. No threads are left hanging, in the hope of a multi-book deal, and for a change, I finally got to read a mathematics book with a satisfying plot and ending!

     A new genre, as what they all say. I must agree, for it definitely lived up beyond my expectations. And for once, I finally managed to finish a mathematics book without the feeling of emptiness and confusion. At first I was expecting an invasion of numbers, theorems and paradoxes, but as I progressed between pages I got to love the book. Although there are some parts in the book that I purposely skipped (the ones where Professor Nico was having a class), I can say that you still have the mathematical digest. What I really liked about the book was that the authors creatively used some notes to depict it as a mathematician’s diary and of course for using the conversation between Vijay Sahni (Ravi’s grandfather) and John Taylor to create the best parts in the book.

     What really struck me was how this book emulates the concept of religion and certainty. Surely it’s what the book really hoped to rely on. It discussed how being an atheist and a mathematician seek certainty through proofs and paradoxes and how a strong believer questioned science and mathematics for what the things proved to be true by religion. To be honest, it was a broad discussion, in fact a sensible topic to be dealt on. But as topics emerged and contradictions seem to be substantial, I finally understood that in this world, what really mattered was your own freedom and choice. Actually while reading those arguments, I sometimes got swayed by how Vijay cleverly point out his reasons and that bi was supporting his oppositions. But with an open mind and an accepting heart, you can clearly see behind the smoke that both of them were actually true. It was just a matter of respecting each other’s beliefs and choices. 

Probably one of the best statements I’ve ever read in the story was what Prof. Nico stated that “The story of infinity is a story of how far the human mind can take us. But it is also the story of boundaries that we may not cross, no matter what.”

     So far, this was the first mathematical book I’ve read that relates mathematics into the understanding of life. The story of infinity, for instance, gave us the idea of unexplainable possibilities but also tell us the limitations we may not cross. Life, as what we all know has so many possibilities and opportunities to offer but it depends upon us if we push through the doors.