Description
Shakuntala Devi was born on 4th November 1929 in Banglore, Southern India. She was a writer and a mental calculator, fondly known all over the world as "Human Calculator". A writer as well as a mathematician bundled in one Shakuntala Devi was a prodigy and wowed many with her superhuman mental ability. She would go on to register many world records including into the Guinness Book of World Records. She strove to simplify mathematics calculations for students. Later on in her life she wrote many books on mathematics, puzzles and astrology as well. The most fascinating fact about her was that she never received any forma education in her childhood.
Devi was born into a Hindu Brahmin family with little fortunes. When she turned three, her father discovered that she possessed an amazing ability to memorize numbers. Soon after realizing that he quit his circus company where he was working and started doing road shows to display her daughter's almost magical skills. Later after he turned 6, he showed her skills in the University of Mysore and came into limelight in her native state. She was able to solve complex mathematical operations in few seconds or sometimes instantly in her mind only. She could tell square root and cube roots of large digit numbers before anyone could even copy that number down.Motivated from this ability of hers, Shakuntala Devi shifted to London in the year 1944. She became a popular name there and then went on to travel several countries . She travalled to USA in 1976 to meet Arthur Jensen, a famous psychologist at California University, who tested her mental ability. He questioned her with complex equations involving large numbers such as cube root of 61,629,875 and seventh root of 170,859,375. Devi spoke all the answers before jensen could even copy them down. In 1977, at Southern Methodist University, she gave 23rd root of a 4 digit digit number in mere 50 seconds. This answer was faster than UNIVAC 1101 computer at that time. In July of 1980, She answered a multiplication of a 13*13 digit number which was picked up at random by Imperial College of London. She correctly answered in 28 seconds and this feat was recorded in Guinness Book.
Devi returned India in 1960s to marry Paritosh Baneerji, an Administrative Officer from Kolkata. She divorced with him for personal reasons in 1979. IN 1977 she wrote a book on Homosexuality as she was an avid supporter of it. This book was critisised in her homeland widely. In addition to this work, Devi was a notable astrologer as well and an author of several books, including cookbooks and novels. She also wrote short stories on murder, mysteries and had a keen interest in music. She died in 2013 in Banglore after fighting from severe respiratory problems. Inspired by her life a movie was launched in her honour on 31 July 2020 by Amazon Prime Video.
