The Missing Mathematics Notebook

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Excerpt from The Missing Mathematics Notebook:

“Ramanujam, I won’t tolerate such outrageous lies in my class.” Ramanujam’s Mathematics teacher, Ms. Daisy Mathew, didn’t believe his story. Who could blame her? For the last 10 minutes, Ramanujam had been trying to convince Ms. Mathew that a thief had entered his house and stolen his Mathematics notebook the previous night.

“But I’m not lying, Ma’am.”

“Enough! I’ve had enough. Come with me.” She took him to the school office.

“But Ma’am, please believe me.”

At the office, Ms. Mathew called Ramanujam’s father. Incredibly, the father backed his son’s story. “Yes, Ms. Mathew. There was a burglary in our house last night. Ramu’s Mathematics notebook is indeed missing.” Ms. Mathew was stumped. Ramanujam’s father was a police officer. He was honest and helpful. Just last year Ramanujam’s father had mediated for Mrs. Lakshmi Raghu, the Art teacher, in a sticky property dispute. Ms. Mathew trusted him. The duo returned to their classroom.

Ms. Mathew brought the class to order. She cleared her throat and said, “It seems Ramanujam was telling the truth.” She paused. She looked down at her textbook.

“Please turn to page 57.”

Earlier that day, Ramanujam had woken up to find his school bag open and his Math notebook missing. His father’s mobile was missing, too.

As they searched the household Ramanujam’s father discovered fresh footprints outside the drawing room window and realized they had been robbed. Later that evening, the police found the notebook and the mobile phone in a garbage bin.

Everyone was puzzled! Why was Ramanujam’s Mathematics notebook stolen? What did it possibly contain? Did it contain the solution to a famous mathematical problem? Was it a teacher from a rival school who did it? Having taken the trouble, why did the thief then dump it in the garbage bin?

Ramanujam and his classmates Vikram and Subashree, inspired by their favourite TV show Detective Gopi, hasten to unravel the clues in the case. Read this fast-paced mystery to find out where their quest for answers leads them.