{"id":18121,"date":"2020-08-02T04:43:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T03:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.inventrium.net\/?p=18121"},"modified":"2020-08-02T04:52:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T03:52:26","slug":"series-amazing-people-with-a-genius-abilities-shakuntala-devi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.inventrium.net\/series-amazing-people-with-a-genius-abilities-shakuntala-devi\/","title":{"rendered":"Series – Amazing People with a genius Abilities – Shakuntala Devi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shakuntala Devi<\/strong>\u00a0(4 November 1929\u00a0\u2013 21 April 2013) was an Indian writer and\u00a0mental calculator, popularly known as the “Human Computer”. Devi strove to simplify\u00a0mathematics\u00a0for students.\u00a0Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of\u00a0The Guinness Book of world Records<\/em>.\u00a0However, the certificate for the record was given posthumously on 30 July 2020, despite Devi achieving her world record on 18 June 1980 at Imperial College, London. Devi was a precocious child and she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the\u00a0University of Mysore\u00a0without any formal education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devi wrote a number of books in her later years, including novels as well as texts about mathematics, puzzles, and astrology. She wrote the book\u00a0The World Of Homosexuals<\/em>, which is considered the first study of\u00a0homosexuality in India.\u00a0She saw homosexuality in a positive light and is considered a pioneer in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shakuntala Devi was born in\u00a0Bengaluru,\u00a0Karnataka\u00a0to a\u00a0Kannada\u00a0Brahmin\u00a0family.Her father worked as\u00a0trapeze\u00a0artist,\u00a0lion tamer,\u00a0tightrope walker, and\u00a0magician\u00a0in a circus.\u00a0He discovered his daughter’s ability to memorize numbers while teaching her a card trick when she was about three years old.\u00a0Her father left the circus and took her on road shows that displayed her ability at calculation.\u00a0She did this without any formal education.\u00a0At the age of six she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the\u00a0University of Mysore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1944, Devi moved to London with her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mental calculation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Devi travelled to several countries around the world demonstrating her\u00a0arithmetic\u00a0talents. She was on a tour of\u00a0Europe\u00a0throughout 1950 and was in\u00a0New York City\u00a0in 1976.\u00a0In 1988, she travelled to\u00a0US\u00a0to have her abilities studied by\u00a0Arthur Jensen, a professor of educational psychology at the\u00a0University of California, Berkeley. Jensen tested her performance at several tasks, including the calculation of large numbers. Examples of the problems presented to Devi included calculating the\u00a0cube root\u00a0of 61,629,875 and the\u00a0seventh root\u00a0of 170,859,375.\u00a0Jensen reported that Devi provided the solution to the above mentioned problems (395 and 15, respectively) before Jensen could copy them down in his notebook.\u00a0Jensen published his findings in the academic journal\u00a0Intelligence<\/em>\u00a0in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1977, at\u00a0Southern Methodist University, she gave the\u00a023rd root<\/strong>\u00a0of a\u00a0201-digit number in 50 seconds<\/strong>.\u00a0Her answer 546,372,891 was confirmed by calculations done at the US Bureau of Standards by the\u00a0UNIVAC 1101\u00a0computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large\u00a0calculation, which took a longer time than her to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 18 June 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers\u20147,686,369,774,870 \u00d7 2,465,099,745,779<\/strong>. These numbers were picked at random by the Department of Computing at\u00a0Imperial College London. She correctly answered\u00a018,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730<\/strong>\u00a0in 28 seconds, which was the time taken by her to speak the answer.\u00a0This event was recorded in the 1982\u00a0Guinness Book of Records<\/em>.\u00a0Writer Steven Smith commented, “the result is so far superior to anything previously reported that it can only be described as unbelievable.”\u00a0Indira Gandhi\u00a0once told Shakuntala, “Shakuntala, I have got many ambassadors all over the world, but you are a very special ambassador, as you can win many friends for India through your Mathematical and Quick Calculation Skills.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shakuntala Devi explained many of the methods she used to do mental calculations in her book Figuring: The Joy of Numbers<\/em>, which is still in print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book on homosexuality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1977, she wrote\u00a0The World of Homosexuals<\/em>, the first published academic study\u00a0of\u00a0homosexuality in India,\u00a0for which she was criticized. In the documentary\u00a0For Straights Only<\/em>, she said that her interest in the topic was because of her marriage to a homosexual man and her desire to look at homosexuality more closely to understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book, considered “pioneering”,\u00a0features interviews with two young Indian homosexual men, a male couple in\u00a0Canada\u00a0seeking legal marriage, a temple priest who explains his views on homosexuality, and a review of the existing literature on homosexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It ends with a call for decriminalization of homosexuality, and “full and complete acceptance\u2014not tolerance and sympathy”. The book, however, went mostly unnoticed at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Devi returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Banerji,\u00a0an officer of the\u00a0Indian Administrative Service\u00a0from\u00a0Kolkata.\u00a0They divorced in 1979 due to personal problems.\u00a0In 1980, she contested the\u00a0Lok Sabha\u00a0elections as an independent candidate for\u00a0Mumbai South\u00a0and for\u00a0Medak\u00a0in\u00a0Andhra Pradesh\u00a0(now in\u00a0Telangana).\u00a0In\u00a0Medak\u00a0she stood against the former\u00a0Prime Minister\u00a0Indira Gandhi,\u00a0saying she wanted to “defend the people of Medak from being fooled by Mrs. Gandhi”;\u00a0she stood ninth, with 6,514 votes (1.47% of the votes).\u00a0Devi returned to\u00a0Bangalore\u00a0in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to her work as a mental calculator, Devi was a notable\u00a0astrologer\u00a0and an author of several books, including cookbooks and novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death and legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In April 2013, Devi was admitted to a hospital in\u00a0Bangalore\u00a0with severe respiratory problems.Over the following two weeks she suffered from heart and kidney complications.She died in hospital on 21 April 2013.She was 83 years old.She is survived by her daughter, Anupama Banerjee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 4 November 2013, Devi was honoured with a\u00a0Google Doodle\u00a0on what would have been her 84th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A film on her life was announced in May 2019.\u00a0The\u00a0eponymous film\u00a0stars\u00a0Vidya Balan\u00a0in the lead role and features\u00a0Sanya Malhotra,\u00a0Amit Sadh, and\u00a0Jisshu Sengupta. Produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, the film streamed worldwide on\u00a0Amazon Prime Video\u00a0on 31 July 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n