SHAKUNTALA DEVI

Shakuntala Devi was born on 4th November in 1929 and lived her life as a "Human Computer".  She was a born genius who was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982.  She was much faster than the computers of the 80s.  She had the unique ability to make complex mathematical calculations without the help of a calculator or a computer.  She could do all the complex calculations mentally and come up with answers in seconds.

She had a strong belief that "numbers have life" and thus spent her entire life with Numbers.

In 1970 she went to Germany and competed with a Computer and won a Mercedes Benz as a prize.  In 1976, she calculated the cube root of 2,373,927,704 as 1334 in 10 seconds.  It took her just 10 seconds to calculate the 8th root of a 14 digit number.  In 1977 she took a competition with the Computer to find the cube root of 188138517 and she won.  In the same year she took just 50 seconds to compute the 23rd root of a 201 digit number.  She gave the answer for the multiplication of two randomly picked 13 digit numbers, in just 28 seconds and thus got recognized by the whole world.  This was at the Imperial College, London on 18th June 1980.

At the Stanford University in 1988, she calculated the 95,443,993 as 457 in just 2 seconds.  On most of the occasions she came up with the answer in the same time that it took to ask her the question.  Such was her speed and mental ability, which was truly astounding and amazing.

The chip manufacturers had to work very hard to beat this great genius Shakuntala Devi and hence started making microprocessors with more and more transistors.  The computing skills of the Computer had to be enhanced several times to go ahead of Shakuntala Devi in the 1980s.  She had the ability to mentally ascertain the day if any date in the previous century was given to her.  That too within a fraction of a second.



Shakuntala Devi had a vision to make learning mathematics very easy for the children.  She wanted to promote extensive research on Vedic Mathematics but could not fulfill that wish.  During her life time, Shakuntala Devi has helped several thousand students to improve their mathematical ability.  She has taught the students Grouping and Rhyming Methods; Right - Left Brain Synergy; Alphabet Code; Number Sound Code; Power of Mnemonics and Mental Filing Methods.  What she taught her students in short was "Mathability".

In addition to teaching students "Mathability" she also practiced Astrology and has shaped the life of several people through her astrological predictions and guidance.

Shakuntala Devi left for the heavenly abode on 21st April 2013.  She must be working in the heaven to create the next generation computing device.  I salute this great mathematician and genius.  Long Live Shakuntala Devi's Fame and Name.

Google gave her a fitting tribute today:

T.P.Anand
Mumbai, India
4th November 2013