The literary world may know him as the author of books like The Death of Vishnu, and The Age of Shiva, but Manil Suri is also a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. And in his latest book, The Big Bang of Numbers, he writes about creating the universe in seven days using only maths. In this episode, he joins Sandip Roy to talk about the book, how maths helped save his life, why it is hard to teach it, and the time he danced to 'Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja'.

Also, listen till the end for an audio postcard about the 150th anniversary of Calcutta's trams.

Produced by Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed bby Abhishek Kumar


(Manil Suri's photograph by José Villarrubia)