“Mathematics is essentially a language. Mathematics and philosophy are like the hardware of a computer and every other subject the software. Maths and philosophy teach us how to think creatively and analyse, learning other subjects becomes very easy,” says Samarasimha Kolli (called Samara in short).
Samara is one of the toppers of his class at Merton College, University of Oxford, in the subjects of mathematics and philosophy. With mathematics and philosophy being his passion, he wants to pursue Ph.D. in them.
Before diving headlong into academics again, he has come to India to discover his roots. Samara spent the first two years of his life in Madhira in Khammam district, where he was born. His mother Padmasri Chekuri belongs to the village. His father Prasanth, an anaesthesiologist, belongs to Jangaon in Warangal.
When Samara was two, his family moved to Oman and a couple of years later to the U.K. After moving around a little bit, his parents settled down in Manchester and Samara finished his high school in Manchester Grammar School, scoring 599 out of 600 in mathematics, 597 in philosophy, and 600 in politics.
Having high scores in philosophy, he opted for Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) course, a forerunner for Whitehall jobs (civil administration) in the university.
He even took a few courses in macroeconomics and political philosophy in Harvard University (Boston, USA), but found the combination intellectually “unstimulating.” It was then he decided to study mathematics and philosophy.
In his post-graduation, Samara scored 92 per cent in Godel’s (mathematical logician) ‘Incompleteness Theorems’ and 88 per cent in Lambda Calculus.
Languages known
He is fluent in English, French, and Russian. He studied French and Russian from school itself.
He has begun learning Urdu and also speaks Telugu, his mother tongue.
He is very fond of Carnatic music and has given Veena concerts and even played for television channels.
He is also very good in Western dances such as the Waltz and the Jive and has participated in nation-wide inter-varsity competition and won prizes for his college.
