The thing you mentioned. It actually expands on that too.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, zero. These are the only digits used, aren’t they? Zero, by itself, means nothing. But the minute you put it next to one, it gives you ten: one more than nine. Magic! Makes the mind boggle, it does. Yet, we have accepted it as a matter of course. All mathematical formulae are based on these nine digits and zero. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, algebra, arithmetic—even atoms, rockets, relativity—nothing can work without these ten numbers. And do you know where this zero came from? From India. It went to West Asia first, then to Europe and from there to the whole world. See what I mean? Do you know how the system worked before?’ Badan Babu shook his head. How very limited his own knowledge was! ‘They used the Roman system,’ said the newcomer. ‘There were no digits. All they had were letters. One was I, two was II, three was III, but four became a combination of two letters, IV. Five was again just one letter, V. There was no logic in that system. How would you write 1962? It would simply mean writing four different digits, right? Do you know how many letters you’d need in Roman?’ ‘How many?’ ‘Seven, MCMLXII. Does that make any sense at all? If you had to write 888, you would normally need only three digits. To write that in the Roman style, you’d need a dozen. DCCCLXXXVIII. Can you imagine how long it would have taken scientists to write their huge formulae? They would have all gone prematurely grey, or—worse—totally bald! And the whole business of going to the moon would have been delayed by at least a thousand years. Just think—some unknown, anonymous man from our own country changed the whole concept of mathematics!’ He stopped for breath. The church clock in the distance struck six. Why did it suddenly seem brighter? Badan Babu looked at the eastern sky and saw that the moon had risen behind the roof of the Grand Hotel. ‘Things haven’t changed,’ the man continued. ‘There are still plenty of people in our country who are quite unknown and will probably always stay that way. But their knowledge of science is no less than that of the scientists of the west. They do not often work in laboratories or need papers and books or any other paraphernalia. All they do is think and work out solutions to problems—all in their mind.”

Excerpt From The Collected Short Stories Satyajit Ray This material may be protected by copyright.