Meet Shakuntala Devi, Popularly Known As The Human Computer.

Shakuntala Devi was an Indian mathematical wizard know as The Human Computer for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations. She was born on November 4, 1929 in Bengaluru, India. Shakuntala hailed from a poor background, her father according to The Telegraph, went against their family's orthodox Brahmin priestly tradition and joined the circus. He excelled in "trapeze, tightrope, lion taming and human cannonball acts". She was just 3 years old when her father found that his daughter was memorizing the card sequence and calculating next move. He recognized her incredible arithmetic computation. Devi at the age of 5 starred in her own act by memorizing an entire shuffled deck of cards. Her father could not even afford her school fee of Rs. 2. Despite of all these austerity Devi made India proud by unveiling her mental skills in calculating complex mathematical problems within seconds.

Throughout her childhood numbers were her toys. She spent her adolescence travelling across the world giving performances. Each time she wowed the audience with her speedy math skills. She did this without any formal education. As a 1976, New York Times article explains, " She could give you the cube root of 188,132,517 - or almost any number in time it took to ask the question. If you give her any date in the last century, she would tell you what day of week it fell on." What a genius!! She also demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore when she was 6.

Devi travelled the world demonstrating her arithmetic talents, including a tour of Europe in 1950 and performance in New York City in 1976. Arthur Jensen, a professor of psychology at university of California, Berkeley, tested her performance of several tasks, including calculations of large numbers. Examples presented to her included calculating cube root of 61,629,875 and seventh root of 170,859,375. Jensen reported that Devi provided the solutions above mentioned problems (395 and 15 respectively) before Jensen could copy them down in his notebook. He published his findings in the academic journal Intelligence in 1990.

In year 1977, at Southern Methodist University, she gave the 23rd root of a 201 digit number in 50 seconds. Her answer was 546,372,891 and was confirmed by calculations done at the US Bureau of standards by the UNIVAC 1101 Computer for which special program had to be written to perform such large calculations.

It was October 5th, 1950, when BBC host Leslie Mitchell gave her a complex math problem and Shakuntala solved it in seconds but answers didn't match. After re-checking the math, Mitchell confessed that Shakuntala was correct and the original answer was wrong. This news spread across the world and Shakuntala earned the title of the Human Computer.

Books she wrote:

Astrology for you.
Book of Numbers.
Figuring: The Joy of Numbers.
The Wonderland of Numbers.
Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child.
Perfect Murder.
Super Memory: It Can Be Yours.
The World of Homosexuals.

[devenkaku]

She got the answer in a second. It was 28 seconds, she took to speak the answer that had 26 digits.👌👌👌

[satya]

Wy genius like ramanujan or shakuntala devi were not well recognized in india?? India recognize Only cricketers or Bollywood actors.

[mahuamukhopadhyay]

I had the opportunity of meeting her in our Officers' Club programme, most probably in 70's. We were overwhelmed at that time. I still have her Autograph in my autograph note book.

[timetraveller]

In India, Actors, Corrupted Politicians are the mostly treated, talented people not accepted widely

[gymlover]

India was a land of talented people... but people only pays respect to politicians and actors. That's why many talented people are unknown.

[hibamishal]

I am wondered of her talent...oh my god...she is one and only legend...

[amithbhagat]

is the first word came into my mind to honor such a profound talent. Sheer greatness to bow before. 🙏

[rupalgoyat]

Huge respect for the pride of India 🙏...shakuntla respect 4 u🔥🔥

[cyberzombie]

Not every child can be like her, not every child can be a prodigy child, every parent should understood this and stop degrading their child.

[Stardust-xlnn]

I see posts as to why she was not given the highest or other awards by Government of India, it's because she contested in Election against Indira Gandhi in Medak district of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state.
She is most underrated gem of India
Our politicians don't care about such great minds
Imagine if govt helped her to start a mathematical University, the world would have come to India

[bangtansne]

There should be lessons in the schools about shakuntala devi.

[rynovait]

I can multiply any 13 digit number with 1 within 28 seconds.

[raghunandansrinivasan]

One and the only one, gifted 'Queen of Calculations' that Bharat gifted to humanity! Her talent has remained a mystery to scientists and mathematicians the world over!

[manishamehta]

O my God... Mene Inki biopic Par bni picture ka promo dekha tab Inke bare me pta chla.. I feel very bad for me.. K Hume Inke bare me ni pta... Grt Mam.. Mujhe maths se dar lgta h

[justaddmasala]

We Indians should get inspired by such legends and make movies on them like “The Imitation Game” on Alan Turing. The perspective of people should change to living an enlightened lifestyle instead of getting inspired but some fake politics/acting!

[anshikaupadhyay]

These kind of talents are worth appreciation . When a genius like Shakuntala devi did not get recongnisation we cannot expect anybody else to get so . Maybe this is the main reason why extremely talented ....or I should say genius people leave India and work somewhere abroad . Shakuntala devi and Sundar Pichai are appropriate examples .

[Rajveeri]

She is very intelligent plZ give Nobel or bharat ratna

[divyadivya]

Shakunthala ji u were a Pride of India

[bydrdeeptisharma]

Inhe milna chahiye bharat ratn.. Ye hain hakdaar.. 🙏or hume ptaa bhi nhi chala k 2013 tk koii aisaa hamare beech thaa... Aabhar apka jo hmare desh me janmii🙏

[deepakjyoti]

Shakuntala devi is an indian and i am too and she is good at maths i am proud to be an Indian ❤🇮🇳