The Curse of 32
I was reading “The Man Who Knew Infinity” by Robert Kanigel — Srinivasa Ramanujan’s biography — for the 3rd time the other day. Even though I still cannot comprehend most of his number theory formulations, I get shocking insights into the workings of his brain every time I read the book. The movie by the same name does absolutely no justice to the book by Kanigel that supposedly formed the basis for the movie. I am intrigued by Ramanujan’s life story as much as I am by his precocious mathematical talent. It just does not make sense. It is one of the greatest paradoxes I have read about. He did not even exhibit the archetypal signs of a gifted savant, a la Kim Peek or Daniel Tammet, in that he was not socially awkward and did not appear handicapped in any form or fashion. He was different alright but not so much that he could be called a social outlier.
But what stayed with me after reading the book most recently, was his death at the age of 32. His last few years — how he tried to wrap a tonne of his mathematics in the last 1 year, even as he was suffering from tuberculosis, his solitary confinement time in the sanatorium, his arduous return journey from Cambridge to Kumbakonam in 1919 and his untimely death in 1920 struck like a dagger in my heart this time. He was too young to die. He had to accomplish so much more. He deserved to be recognized. He deserved to be hailed as India’s Euler, India’s Einstein. Why did he have to die at 32? Could he have been saved? What if he were born in the 21st century?
It must not have been more than a week since my aforementioned bereavement of Ramanujan’s untimely death that I was reading about Alexander the Great. I think I was researching India — one of my favorite pastimes is reading histories of countries — when I came across the mighty king of Macedon. A world conqueror in the truest sense, his audacity and bravado were of no match. He was all of 20 years old when he ascended the throne of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. By contrast, I was still in college getting my degree at that age. Some analogy, alright! A pupil of Aristotle, Alexander succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army in 336 BC. Within a decade, he had conquered much of modern-day Europe and Asia to the east of his kingdom, all the way to the borders of India.
Alexander was obsessed with reaching the “end of the world”, conquering everything that came along the way. Some historians think Alexander believed India to be the final frontier to accomplish his dream. He duly invaded India in 326 BC, winning an important victory over Porus, the Indian king, at the Battle of the Hydaspes and would probably have continued his march eastwards, if not for the revolt by his troops demanding turning back and returning home. His troops were not only exhausted from 10 years of continuous wars away from home but their courage was also significantly blunted by the extended war with Porus. Not knowing precisely how far East would they have to go to reach the end of the world, they started fearing the prospects of facing other powerful Indian armies. Knowing what we know of the world map now, Alexander’s armies perhaps made a fortunate decision.
Alexander returned home to Macedon, which for his own legacy reasons turned out to be rather unfortunate. Thanks to his insatiable urge for world supremacy, he started plans to conquer Arabia next. But he’d never live to see it happen. After surviving battle after fierce battle, Alexander the Great died in June 323 BC at age 32! Some historians say Alexander died of malaria or other natural causes; others believe he was poisoned. Either way, he never named a successor. His death — and the bloody infighting for control that happened afterwards — unraveled and tore apart the entire empire he had fought so hard to create.
Growing up in India in the mid-1980s, I did not know any school-going kid who had not seen the above picture of Bruce Lee. It adorned the walls of most kids’ bedrooms, every gymnasium and those of retail shops selling sporting goods. For 100s of millions of Indians, Bruce Lee was Kung Fu and Kung Fu was Bruce Lee. Informally titled God of martial arts, there were legends how nobody could lay their hands on his body, even in his sleep, much less when he’s awake. On pirated copies or legit VHS tapes, everybody had watched, or at least knew somebody who had watched Bruce Lee’s martial arts movies. Bruce lee was probably more famous in India than Hollywood. With a population close to a billion people compared to a few hundred million in the US, it probably was true in terms of the sheer number of fans.
Literally a few days after I had read Alexander the Great’s biography, it happened. As is the norm with most, I was scrolling through the movies on Netflix, not able to decide what to binge-watch next. “Enter the Dragon” — probably Bruce Lee’s most famous martial arts movie from 1973 — popped up on my giant TV screen. I had to watch it. For the sake of my childhood memories. The action sequences were/are amazing. He was not a bad actor either, the foreign accent notwithstanding. Having taken a joyful trip down the memory lane, I googled Bruce Lee — just curious about his life & death. I knew he had died young, under mysterious circumstances. Lo and behold, he was 32 when he died!
What is with famous personalities dying at the age of 32? I knew another very famous personality, Swami Vivekananda, had died in his 30s. I looked him up. He had died after he turned 39. Phew! There is such a thing as “Famous people who died at 32” on Google. Marie II of England, Adi Shankara and the cricketer Hansie Cronje were a few I recognized among the list of names that popped up in my search.
My conclusion: Curse of 32 is not a thing. Not like the “27 Club” at least, I learned. It was strangely coincidental though that I read about Srinivasa Ramanujan, Alexander the Great and Bruce Lee within the span of a few days — one a mathematician, another a world conquering warrior from ancient times and the 3rd one a famous movie star. Odd that they all died at 32! Or was it odder that I chose to read across such diverse genre and more importantly, chose to make a mental note of the age when each died? Interesting questions…
