SHAKUNTALADEVI
Shakuntala Devi was born on 4th Nov 1929 in
Bangalore. Her father was a circus artiste who worked as a trapeze and
tightrope performer. She started displaying her genius while she was 3 and
would assist her father in circus shows to do card tricks. By the age of 6, she
had proved that she was a prodigy in mathematics by displaying her excellent
memory and mental calculation skills in Mysore University. What followed that
is history.
Amongst her varied achievements and awards, a few are:
* 'Distinguished Woman of the Year Award' in 1969, from
the University of Philippines along with a gold medal.
* In 1988, she was honored with the
'Ramanujan Mathematical Genius Award' in Washington D.C., conferred to her by
the-then Indian Ambassador to US.
* Her name was listed in the '1995
Guinness Book of World Records' edition for her outstanding mathematical feat
where she beat the world's fastest computer at multiplying two thirteen digit
numbers.
* A month before her death, she was honored with the 'Lifetime
Achievement Award' in Mumbai, in 2013.
Shakuntala Devi amazed the whole world through her amazing
mental calculation skills and has given performances world-wide. Her books like
'Fun with Numbers', 'Puzzles to Puzzle You', are a delight for both children
and grown ups. She was rated as one in 58
million for her stupendous mathematical feats by one of the fastest
super-computers ever invented —the Univac — 1108. In the
year 1977, Shakuntala Devi mentally solved the 23rd root
of a 201-digit number. In 1980, she
again solved the multiplication of two 13-digit
numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 that
were randomly picked by the computer department of Imperial College in London.
And this, she did in just 28 seconds.
Her correct answer to this multiplication sum was 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730.
This incident has been included on the 26th page
of the famous 1995 Guinness Book of Records.
She has set her foot on every country in the world and made
India look upon her with pride. She faded away into infinity on 21st
April 2013 leaving behind her legendary and inspiring life.
Om Bharatagauravaaya Namah - Salutations to the one who is the
pride of India!
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