Prof. Seshu Aiyar also communicated the earliest contributions of Ramanujan to the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society (I.M.S.) in the form of questions. These appeared in 1911 and in his brief and illustrious career Ramanujan proposed in all 59 questions or solutions to questions in this journal. The first fifteen page article entitled: Some properties of Bernoulli numbers⁷ appeared in the same 1911 volume of the journal of the I.M.S. In it Ramanujan stated eight theorems embodying arithmetical properties of the Bernoulli numbers, indicating proofs for three of them; two theorems are stated as corollaries of two others, while three theorems are stated as mere conjectures. Prof. P.V. Seshu Iyer states ([I], p. 125):

Ramanujan's methods were so terse and novel and his presentation was so lacking in clearness and precision, that the ordinary reader, unaccustomed to such intellectual gymnastics, could hardly follow him.

Mr. M.T. Narayanaiengar, one of the early editors of the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society states that this first article of Ramanujan:
attracted considerable attention. It is however a sad confession to say that the Editor's work in connection with Ramanujan's contribution was by no means light. Ramanujan saw intuitively many things and could not bring himself to explain and the first article had to be referred back to him no less than three times.

Ramanujan lived in a small house called `Summer House' in Sami Pillai Street, Triplicane, Madras, accepting reluctantly a monthly financial assistance from the collector of Nellore for about a year. Later he declined this help and from Jan. 12 to Feb. 21, 1912, he worked as a clerk in the Accountant General's Office. Not satisfied with this job, Ramanujan applied for and secured a post in the Accounts Section (Class III, Grade IV) in the Madras Port Trust, with the help of Mr. S. Narayana Iyer, the Manager of Port Trust, who was the treasurer of the IMS and a friend of Profs. V. Ramaswamy Aiyar and P.V. Seshu Aiyar.

Mr. Narayana Aiyer was a good mathematician and was a great source of support to Ramanujan. He was not only instrumental in Ramanujan being offered a job in the Madras Port Trust, but also in securing for Ramanujan the life-long support of Sir Francis Spring to Ramanujan's career. Narayana Aiyer's son N. Subbanarayanan relates the role his father played in the career of Ramanujan [I, p. 112]:

To illustrate the depth of his genius, I can quote one of the incidents which happened during the stay of Sri Ramanujan with my father when we were living in No. 580, Pycrofts Road, Triplicane. Duriag that period, every night both Ramanujan and my father used to work Mathematics in two big sized slates sitting on a small parapet upstairs. This used to be carried on till about 11.30 p.m. and was a source of nuisance to other inmates of the house who used to sleep in the adjoining rooms. I distinctly remember the noises of the slate pencils which used to be a background music for my sleep. Several nights I have seen Sri Ramanujan get up at 2 o'clock in the night and note down something in the slate in the dull light of a hurricane lamp. When my father asked him what he was writing, he used to say that he worked out mathematics in his dreams and now he was jotting the results in the slate to remember them. Evidently, this goes to show that he must have had a remarkable power of subconscious working and grasp of intellectual strides in mathematics. Peculiarly enough, my father used to ask Ramanujan some doubts in these jottings. Between one step and another step there used to be a big gap. My father, being a fairly good mathematician himself, was unable to capture the strides of Ramanujan's discoveries. He used to tell him, ``When I am not able to understand your steps, I do not know how other mathematicians of a critical nature will accept your genius. You must descend to my level and write at least ten steps between the two steps of yours." Sri Ramanujan used to say, ``When it is so simple and clear to me, why should I write more steps?" But somehow my father slowly got him round, cajoled him and made him write some more, though it used to be a mighty task of boredom to him.