Saturday, October 13
Midas Touchtone
Written for Outlook City Limits
I suppose it is fair that the national telephone numbering plan – which allocated area codes to districts and municipalities – gave the Capital City the honour of the 011 preface, and handed out diminishing honours to Bombay (022), Calcutta (033), Madras (044). I know a few Bangaloreans who'd prefer a higher rank than 080, particularly since we're on the phone with Americans so often, but these things are occasionally revised, and we're willing to be patient. As long 055 remains unclaimed.
But honours are thoroughly wasted on the people who receive them. On December 5th, 2002, MTNL notified a change in the numbering plan – turning Delhi's seven-digit phone numbers into eight digits by prefixing them with the number 2 – as was happening in other cities as well. Of course, everyone was so irritated and preoccupied with editing their cellphone entries that nobody noticed the opportunity, opening like a golden door in the sky, to acquire what might be the most prestigious and revered number in the history of numeracy.
There was 011, and then a 2. Notice that, the first pair notwithstanding, each of the latter two digits is the sum of the two digits before it. When you continue to add digits in this manner – 3, 5, 8 – you get what is called the Fibonacci Series.
I suppose it is fair that the national telephone numbering plan – which allocated area codes to districts and municipalities – gave the Capital City the honour of the 011 preface, and handed out diminishing honours to Bombay (022), Calcutta (033), Madras (044). I know a few Bangaloreans who'd prefer a higher rank than 080, particularly since we're on the phone with Americans so often, but these things are occasionally revised, and we're willing to be patient. As long 055 remains unclaimed.
But honours are thoroughly wasted on the people who receive them. On December 5th, 2002, MTNL notified a change in the numbering plan – turning Delhi's seven-digit phone numbers into eight digits by prefixing them with the number 2 – as was happening in other cities as well. Of course, everyone was so irritated and preoccupied with editing their cellphone entries that nobody noticed the opportunity, opening like a golden door in the sky, to acquire what might be the most prestigious and revered number in the history of numeracy.
There was 011, and then a 2. Notice that, the first pair notwithstanding, each of the latter two digits is the sum of the two digits before it. When you continue to add digits in this manner – 3, 5, 8 – you get what is called the Fibonacci Series.
Nerds throughout history have been dazzled by the Fibonacci Series, beginning with Pingala, the Sanskrit grammarian who related it to rhythmic mantras. It is the mathematical underpinning of the Golden Ratio, beloved of the Greeks, and used in the design of the Parthenon and the Pyramids of Giza (when any number in the Series is divided by the number before it, the quotient converges on the Ratio). It plays a startlingly visible role in the biological programming of pinecones, spiralling shells, sunflowers and the branching of trees. It has shaped the physical and cultural appearance of the planet in more ways than can be summarized. It even made a sheepish appearance in The Da Vinci Code. Everything it touches is gold: the Golden Ratio, the Golden Rectangle, and now, for one lucky MTNL subscriber only, the Golden Phone Number: 011 2358 1321.
It is now 2007 and, to my piercing disappointment, the voice that picks up on the Golden Phone Number still squawks, "This number does not exist." Over in Ludhiana, where people are less blasé about these things, BSNL is auctioning VIP mobile phone numbers for upto 40 lakhs. There's got to be someone in Delhi who feels romantically enough towards mathematics to shell out between Rs. 3000 and Rs 50,000 for an MTNL vanity number. At present, the landline of the Mathematical Sciences Foundation at St Stephens is so boring it would take Ramanujam all afternoon with a calculator to make something of it. A treasure lies unclaimed, and if nobody's having it, I'm sure I can find someone in Bangalore who would treat it well, at very least as a foolproof pick-up line: "My number's the Fibonacci series – what's yours?"
