Letters, numbers. The alphanumeric combinations we are advised to use in our passwords underlie all high civilizations. But according to A Mathematician’s Apology (1940) by G.H. Hardy, who invited S. Ramanujan to Cambridge, “Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. ‘Immortality’ may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean.”

The embarrassment over Viswanathan Anand’s honorary degree has raised the question of academic autonomy in a dramatic, if peripheral, way. The human resource development minister has intervened; Anand has conducted himself with dignity; the matter has receded from the headlines.

State information and tourism minister J. Geeta Reddy (left), Union tourism minister Kumari Selja (centre) and Panabaka Lakshmi, union textiles minister, are all smiles at the inauguration of the information-cum-reservation centre of the AP Tourism Development Corporation at the Rajiv Gandhi international airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Ninety six… that was the number of Vidya Mandir students seated on the stage to render kritis. What a sight! What a congregation! One could not have asked for a better way to start the last day of Svanubhava 2010.

Where have all the sparrows gone? Director Abhaya Simha pondered this question and decided that Bangalore's dwindling sparrow population would form the main theme of his debut film, “Gubbachchigalu”. The film revolves around the quest of two children, a girl and a boy, to find sparrows in the city. All their efforts, however, are in vain.