A Dedicated Math Whiz

            The third book that will be reviewed was entitled A Certain Ambiguity. At first, I thought it was going to be another boring book that will just talk about mathematics, that it will be an unexciting one for a reader like me. But I was wrong, it was a not just boring book; it was a novel and for me it was good one. Compared to the other books that were required for us to read, this was the first one that made me awake for some nights.

            The story revolves about a boy named Ravi Kapoor, he had a grandfather who was a man that had a great love for mathematics and Ravi was influenced by his Bauji. When his grandpa died, he seemed to have lost his passion for mathematics until time came when his mother told her that there was money that Vijay Sahni-- his Bauji left for him to study college in America. He studied hard again and he was invited at Stanford University to study there.

            When he already got there, he still didn’t have the passion in learning. He had no interest in any of his subject and he also had difficulty in choosing his major but he was urged by his father to take up economics. The first person he met in America was Peter Cage. There was this Thursday Night Jazz were students could come and perform. Ravi became regular there and sometimes Peter would come with him. He was with Peter when he met professor Nico Aliprantis; he was Peter’s best math teacher. They were asked by Nico to sign up for the class called Thinking About Infinity. They were financially unstable that time but because he felt that there was something about Nico, he enrolled in the class.

            In the class, problems about infinity were always given to them but this class did not only let Ravi’s passion in mathematics come again but also he discovered something that he didn’t know about his grandfather. His grandfather had been imprisoned because he said something offensive about the Christians and was accused blasphemy and he found it out by the help of Claire’s mother. A judge came to talk to Bauji and instead of debating about religion issues, Bauji talked about how mathematics made him an atheist. He also taught some mathematical proofs to the judge and it made him become interested in mathematics. The finale was quite foreseeable, Ravi he got married to Claire and of course he pursued his career in mathematics.

            So far, this is the most informative novel that I have read.  Although, some of the equations and proofs shown in this book were quite mind boggling and difficult to comprehend, I still liked how the author made the novel fascinating.