The English Chill Summary and Analysis

Ramanujan made tremendous progress in his mathematical work at Cambridge. However, he never really fit in with English and especially Cambridge society. Ramanujan saw himself primarily as a Brahmin and stuck to his Brahmin habits and strictures as much as possible. One of these was his vegetarianism. To the Brahmin, the food that one ate was important to the spiritual health of the soul. Ramanujan refused to eat the meat that was the center of the English diet and learned not to trust the college cafeteria's claims that a certain dish was or was not vegetarian. This effectively excluded him from the important social ritual of meals at the high table of Cambridge Fellows. Instead, Ramanujan cooked most of his meals on a small stove in his room. It was not only the food taboos that separated...