Hyderabad: Shakuntala Devi, India’s Female Mathematician who came to be known as 'The Human-Computer' was born on 4 November 1929 and died on 21 April 2013.
Shakuntala Devi was known for her fiercely independent spirit. In a 1950 interview, Devi declared that “I do not want to give any man an opportunity to say that if I made a name it was because of his help.”
When she married, she refused to adopt her husband’s name. She instead told, “I want the ration card to be made out in my own name. Taking me as a full-fledged individual, a complete person in my own right.”
Shakuntala Devi married the Kolkata-based IAS officer, Paritosh Bannerji, in 1960. She had a daughter named Anupama Bannerji, but the marriage soon fell apart when Bannerji’s homosexuality was revealed. But while for many it could have been a crushing revelation that would lead to resentment, for Devi, however, it worked as a catalyst that helped her delve deep into her humanity.
- And this time, she went ahead to make headlines not for her calculations, but for her compassion. She penned down a book The World of Homosexuals (1977), in which she challenged the notion that homosexuality is immoral.
- She added that those who disrespect, discriminate, and mock people on the basis of their sexual preferences are, in fact, immoral and should look within themselves.
- The book, although never allowed to take the center stage in the list of Devi’s lifelong achievements, became the first Indian study of homosexuality.
- A New York Times report later marveled at the woman “who has difficulty remembering her birth date” but could “give you the cube root of 188,132,517 – or almost any other number – in the time it took to ask the question”.
- Shakuntala Devi’s talent also found a place in the Guinness book of world records in 1982. She earned her entry in it for being able to multiply two 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds, without the help of any computer.
- In addition to her work as a mental calculator, Devi was a famous astrologer and author of several books, including cookbooks and novels.
- She was able to multiply two 13 digit numbers and give the answer in 28 seconds, and those 28 seconds were how long it took her to say the answer out loud.
- She was able to compute the 23rd root of a 201 digit number faster than a UNIVAC 1101 computer, one of the fastest computers in the world at the time.
- She gave shows all around the world, and Indira Gandhi once called her “a very special ambassador” for India.
But wherever she went, heart belonged to Bengaluru. Talking from her London home, Shakuntala Devi’s daughter Anupama Banerji said “However busy she was, mummy always made it a point to visit Bengaluru and she would take a tour of the city as it was her playground. She took immense pride in being a Bangalorean.”
- Shakuntala Devi also wrote books on numbers, mathematics and homosexuality. Astrology for you, Book of numbers, Figuring: The joy of numbers, In the wonderland of numbers, Mathability: Awaken the math genius in your child, More puzzles to puzzle you, Puzzles to puzzle you, Super memory: It can be yours and The world of homosexuals are some of her works.
- Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister of India, congratulated Shakuntala Devi and quoted, “Out of all the ambassadors for India in abroad you are the best.”
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