  Recently, Simon Plouffe has discovered a number of identities for the Riemann
zeta function at odd integer values. These identities are obtained numerically
and are inspired by a prototypical series for Apery's constant given by
Ramanujan: $\zeta(3)=\frac{7\pi^3}{180}-2\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{1}{n^3(e^{2\pi
n}-1)}$ Such sums follow from a general relation given by Ramanujan, which is
rediscovered and proved here using complex analytic techniques. The general
relation is used to derive many of Plouffe's identities as corollaries. The
resemblance of the general relation to the structure of theta functions and
modular forms is briefly sketched.
