From The Wikipedia article “Just after his death a commemorative hall was named after him in the former Istituto di Matematica (Institute of Mathematics) of the university of Genoa.” The context may be this. He was one of the few people who studied Italian geometers as well as Grothendieck. Italian geometry from those days was supposed to be interesting but full of gaps and mistakes. Ramanujam was probably one of those who could appreciate what was good in Italian geometry and could justify some of it with modern techniques. I think that some of the Italian mathematicians who met him appreciated this and named the hall after him. He was deep scholar and learner. Even after became a professor, he used to learn a lot of stuff. He felt that his knowledge of Topology was deficient and when Spanier’s book on Algebraic ToPology came out, he read it cover to cover doing all the exercises. Once he said to me ‘ Even though I myself say it, I know algebraic surfaces well”. Coming from such a modest man, it was some statement.
Before one of his breakdowns, I was around and could see it coming. I stayed with him most of a night drinking and talking. Even that state, he was polite. He said “Shall I fight with you?”.
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