Shakuntala Devi - A mathematics Genius

There are many extraordinary people's lives or lived in our world and sometimes, we have no idea about them. Recently, I watched the movie 'Shakuntala Devi' and through, this movie I came to know about legendary personality Shakuntala Devi, a mathematics genius. This movie inspired me to know more about her. She got main fame when she defeated the super-fast computer of her time in mathematics calculations. Her mathematical skills were so advanced that she was able to beat the calculation done by the computer. Even there was also one incident in which she gave the right answer to a mathematical question while the computer gave the wrong answer.

Her exceptional mathematic skills earned her name and fame; she was even given a place in Genius Book of world records in 1982. The biggest strange point about the Shakuntala Devi was that she never got a formal education but still, she was able to create many new techniques for children to make mathematics easy. Later in life, she also became a famous astrologer, fought elections and wrote some books on different topics. She was one of the astrologer who told Narinder Modi before becoming prime minister that he will become Prime Minister of India one day. She married a man from Calcutta, Paritosh Banerji in 1964. However, her marriage didn't last long and she divorced her husband in 1979. She has a single daughter from this marriage. 

Despite the fact, she didn't have formal education and she was from a humble background, she roses to new heights in life with her own talent only. Initially, she struggled hard to show her talent and she was refused from many places to show her talent but with a trust in her skills, she never looks back in life and created a life that she ever wanted.  Though her family and married lives were not so satisfying still she never stopped from achieving new things in life. Her talent in math was exceptional. Most of the people in the world fear math questions but she even answered correctly the multiplication of two digits of 13 numbers which shows her exceptional control on math. 

She died in April 2013 and left behind her great legacy. We can learn from her life that we can also achieve in life what we want and only we need to have faith in our dreams. Many difficulties may come and go during life but we should always move forward without any fear. 

Watch a Rare Video of Shakuntala Devi from the Doordarshan Archives-

 

To watch the movie made on her Click Here