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DP Sengupta, 83, shuffles from living room to bedroom amidst a cacophony of ringing landline phones. Ignoring the calls, he scrounges, instead, for an Indian Express clipping from 1976. Ours is a telephonic chat, but one can still vividly picture the bald, bearded and baritoned scientist going from room to room during the conversation. Sengupta is former visiting professor at Bengaluru’s National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and emeritus fellow at the Indian Institute of Science. He’s also a critic of nuclear tests, an amateur ghazal singer and author of children’s science books.

But above all else, he’s an advocate for changing Indian Standard Time (IST).