21. Shakuntala Devi is a human computer(1929 – 2013)
.
I am not sure whether the
mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi can be called a scientist. Without any
formal education, she multiplied two 13-digit numbers and found the result in
just 28 seconds, the cube root of an 11-digit number in just 10 seconds, and
the 7th root of a 33-digit number in 40 seconds.
Born on November 4, 1929,
the daughter of a circus performer in Bangalore, Shakuntala Devi was a person
who could multiply large numbers and find their square root in seconds. She was
really a human computer. Her name was added to the Guinness Book of World
Records in 1982. (But the fact that the certificate arrived after her death on April
21 2013 is a paradox). But even before this, on June
18, 1980, the world record was set at London's Imperial College. At a very
young age, the child Shakuntala Devi displayed her prodigious talent at the
University of Mysore.
Shakuntala Devi wrote a
number of books, mostly on mathematics and astrology, but unusually she wrote
perhaps the first book on homosexuality in India. It may also be interesting to
note that she found nothing wrong with homosexuality in her view.
Childhood
She had born in a Kannada
Brahmin family in Bangalore, as the daughter of a circus performer named
Sundararaja Rao. Her father used to
perform trapeze, tame a lion, walk on a tightrope and perform magic in the
circus. He realized his daughter's prodigious talent when she was about three
years old when she played some card games. He then gave up his job in the
circus and immersed himself in Shakuntala's talent shows. To everyone's
surprise, Shakunthala had no formal education. At the age of six, Shakuntala
showcased her talent at Mysore University. In 1944 they moved to London.
Then Shakuntala Devi
exhibited her number magic in many countries abroad. In 1950, she toured Europe
and showcased her talent. She arrived in New York in 1976. At the University of
California, Berkeley in the United States, Arthur Jensen, a psychologist and
educational expert, subjected her to
experimental observations. Prof. Jensen tested her skills in several ways. Some
of the experiments he gave them were to multiply large numbers as well as to
find different roots of large numbers. For example, to find the cube root of
the number 61,629,875 and to find the seventh root of 170,859,375. He notes
that Shakuntala Devi already found the answer (395, 15) before Jensen wrote
these numbers down on paper. He published his findings in the journal Inter religence
in 1990.
In 1977, at Southern
Methodist University, she found the 23rd root of a 201-digit number to be
546,372,891. A special program had to be written on the Univac 1101 computer
that was there to find this result. The computer took some more time to
calculate the result.
On June 18, 1980, at
Imperial College London, she discovered the product of two 13-digit numbers
(7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779.) 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in
just 28 seconds. This earned her a
Guinness World Record in 1982. They recorded this as unbelievable. Another talent of Devi Shakuntala was that she
was able to accurately predict the day of any given date in the calendar within
seconds.
Indira Gandhi said this
about Shakuntala Devi in 2009: “Shakuntala, India has ambassadors in many
parts of the world. But you are a special ambassador, you are a traveling
mathematics ambassador, you can make a lot of friends for India, you can
establish good relations with India and many other countries.
In 1977 Shakuntala Devi's
book “The World of Homosexuals” was the first such book published in India.
Many criticized them for it. But in a later interview, Shakuntala Devi said
that her interest in the matter was because her husband was a homosexual and to
understand more about that character. The book follows two gay men in Canada
who approach a vicar to officiate their marriage, and who try to review
detailed studies on the subject.
Personal life
Shakuntala Devi returned
to India in the mid-1960s. She married Paritosh Banerjee, an IAS officer from
Kolkata. They divorced in 1979 due to personal reasons. In 1980, she contested
as an independent candidate for the Lok Sabha from Bombay South. Later she
contested against Indira Gandhi from Medak constituency in Andhra Pradesh. In
both, she failed miserably. In 1980, she
returned to her native place Bangalore.
Shakuntala Devi was an
astrologer who showed magic with numbers. She has published some books on
astrology and culinary arts. She also had a great interest in music.
Death and Donations
In April 2013, Shakuntala
Devi was admitted to the hospital with acute respiratory disease. Within a
fortnight she developed kidney failure and heart disease and passed away on
April 21, 2013. She was 83 years old when she died. She has a daughter named
Anupama Banerji. She lives in London with their two children. On November 4,
2013, Google honoured Shakuntala Devi on her 84th birthday with a doodle. A
movie has been made based on their life. Vidya Balan acted as Shakuntala Devi
in it.
Shakuntala Devi's main
virtues
• Astrology for You (New
Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0067-6
• Book of Numbers (New
Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0006-5
• Figuring: The Joy of
Numbers (New, ISBN 978-0-06-011069-7, OCLC 4228589
• In the Wonderland of
Numbers (New Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0399-8
• Mathability: Awaken the
Math Genius in Your Child (New Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0316-5
• More Puzzles to Puzzle
You (New Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0048-5
• Perfect Murder (New
Delhi: Orient, 1976), OCLC 3432320
• Puzzles to Puzzle You
(New Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0014-0
• Super Memory: It Can Be
Yours (New Delhi: Orient, 2011). ISBN 978-81-222-0507-7; (Sydney: New Holland,
2012). ISBN 978-1-74257-240-6, OCLC 781171515
• The World of
Homosexuals (Vikas Publishing House, 1977), ISBN 978-0706904789[
Reference
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