Desai cautions against the mythologising that has distorted Ramanujan’s life story. He did not spring from abject poverty, nor was his intelligence unrecognised prior to his departure for England. Neither did he field expressions of racism in England, nor was he abandoned by Hardy or by his community in Madras in his personal circumstances. In fact, Hardy got him admitted to the best sanatorium.

Desai tells a story of one of Hardy’s visit to the sanatorium that well illustrates their special bond. Once he got to Ramanujan’s bedside, “all Hardy could say was, ‘the number of my taxi was an uninteresting number, 1729’.” Ramanujan demurred, it is, he pointed out, the sum of two perfect cubes.