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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Alex Bellos

Can you solve it? The man who made India’s trains run on time

Mumbai, Victoria Terminus railways stationIndia, Maharashtra, Mumbai (Bombay), Victoria Terminus railways station or Chhatrapati Shivaji
Mumbai, Victoria Terminus railways station
India, Maharashtra, Mumbai (Bombay), Victoria Terminus railways station or Chhatrapati Shivaji
Photograph: Tuul & Bruno Morandi/Getty Images

By day, Shyam Sunder Gupta was Principal Chief Engineer of Indian Railways. By night, he was a guru of recreational mathematics.

For decades, Gupta spent his free time exploring patterns in numbers, his numerical curiosities finding their way into journals, magazines and books.

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