Making friends with Mathematics and Mathematical Objects

Ramanujan loved the numbers and patterns and they were his friends. He could talk to them and play with them. They appeared and listened to him. It struck me that each one of us could also do the same. 

By the way Ramanujan proved that the infinite sum of natural numbers can be -1/12 even if it looks like going towards infinity. I explained the process of arriving at the value of -1/12 to a kid. She asked me why I did few operations on the series like 1-1+1-1+1…. And 1-2+3-4+5…….to arrive at the result. Suddenly I could realize that I made friends with the numbers and series by understanding their pattern, and language and fine-tuned my operations, approached to match their way and spoke their language, so that they like my operations and become friends with me and grant my wish. 

I explained to the kid that the numbers, series and patterns are like people and they are like nature. If we like people the way they are and like their ideas and speak and behave like them they also like us, and become our friends. Same is the case with nature and life. Once we understand nature and life and be in their beat, be in sync with their energy and pattern then our life becomes simple, joyful, balanced and smoother.