Shakuntala Devi (4 November 1929 – 21 April 2013) was an Indian mental calculator, astrologer, and writer, popularly known as the "Human Computer". Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. However, 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 University of Mysore without any formal education.

Devi strove to simplify numerical calculations for students. She wrote several books in her later years, including novels as well as texts about mathematics, puzzles, and astrology. She wrote the book The World of Homosexuals (1977), which is considered the first study of homosexuality in India. She saw homosexuality in a positive light and is considered a pioneer in the field. to a Kannada Brahmin family. Her father, C V Sundararaja Rao, worked as a trapeze artist, lion tamer, tightrope walker and magician in a circus. He discovered his daughter's ability to memorise numbers while teaching her a card trick when she was about three years old.

Mental calculator

Devi travelled to several countries around the world, demonstrating her arithmetic talents. She was on a tour of Europe throughout 1950 and was in New York City in 1976. Jensen reported that Devi provided the solution to the above-mentioned problems (395 and 15, respectively) before Jensen could copy them down in his notebook.

In 1977, at Southern Methodist University, she computed the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds. It took the UNIVAC computer 62 seconds to produce the correct answer.

On 18 June 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers – 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779. The Department of Computing at Imperial College London randomly picked these numbers. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds.

Book on homosexuality

In 1977, she wrote The World of Homosexuals, the first published academic study for which she was criticised. In the documentary For Straights Only, 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.

The book, considered "pioneering", features interviews with two young Indian homosexual men, a male couple in Canada seeking legal marriage, a temple priest who explains his views on homosexuality, and a review of the existing literature on homosexuality.

Personal life

Devi returned to India in the mid-1960s, and she married Paritosh Banerji, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kolkata. They divorced in 1979, after her husband's homosexuality was allegedly revealed.

In 1980, she contested the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate for Mumbai South and for Medak in Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana). saying she wanted to "defend the people of Medak from being fooled by Mrs. Gandhi";

Death and legacy

In April 2013, Devi was admitted to a hospital in Bangalore with severe respiratory problems.

On 4 November 2013, Devi was honoured with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 84th birthday.

A film on her life titled Shakuntala Devi was announced in May 2019. The film stars Vidya Balan in the lead title role and features Sanya Malhotra, Amit Sadh, and Jisshu Sengupta in the supporting roles. Produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, the film streamed worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on 31 July 2020.

Selected works

References

  • Chips no match to grey cells: Shakuntala Devi at The Times of India
  • Interview of Shakuntala Devi at Know Your Star