India's Maths Wizard Shakuntala Devi

 

Born	November 4, 1929 Bangalore, British India
Died	April 21, 2013 (aged 83) Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Cause of death	Heart attack
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Human computer
Occupation	Mathematician, Astrologer

 

Biography

Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore, India, to an orthodox priestly  KannadaBrahmin family. Her father rebelled against becoming a temple priest and instead joined a circus, where he worked as a trapeze and tightrope performer, and later as a lion tamer and a human cannonball. Shakuntala Devi was only around three years old and she was roped in to help her father with card tricks. Her father left the circus and took her on road shows that displayed her amazing ability at number crunching. Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three. They report she "beat" them by memorization of cards rather than by sleight of hand. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore.^{[1][dead link]} At the age of eight she had success at Annamalai University by doing the same. In 2006 she released In the Wonderland of Numbers with Orient Paperbackswhich talks about a girl Neha and her fascination for numbers. She developed the concept of `mind dynamics`.

Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Bannerji, an IAS officer from
Kolkata. The couple, however, divorced in 1979 and Shakuntala Devi returned to Bangalore in early 1980s and started offering astrological advice to hundreds of people, including celebrities, politicians and anyone who approached her. Bannerji passed away in 2010 in Kolkata.

Achievements

• In 1977 in Dallas she competed with a computer to see who give the cube root of 188138517 faster, she won. At an American university she was asked to give the 23rd root of 91674867692003915809866092758538016248310668014430862240712651642793465704086709659 3279205767480806790022783016354924852380335745316935111903596577547340075681688305 620821016129132845564805780158806771. She answered in 50 seconds. Her answer of 546372891 took a UNIVAC 1108 computer a full minute (10 seconds more) to confirm that she was right after it was fed with 13000 instructions.
• On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records.

Personal life

Devi was an astrologer and gave remedies purportedly based on date and time of birth and place (see Astrology for You linked below).

Death

On April 21, 2013 at around 8:15 am, Shakuntala Devi died at a hospital in Bangalore, India. She had been admitted to the Bangalore hospital on April 3 as her kidneys had become weak and she also had respiratory problems. She was 83 years old and is survived by a daughter. Hundreds of people, including relatives and admirers, were present at her last rites, which were conducted in a southern suburb of the city of Bangalore in the evening

Books

Some of her books include:

• More Puzzles to Puzzle You (New Delhi: Orient, 
• Puzzles to Puzzle You (New Delhi: Orient, 2005.                    

• Book of Numbers (New Delhi: Orient, 2006).
• Perfect Murder (New Delhi: Orient, 1976),
• Figuring: The Joy of Numbers (New York: Harper & Row, 1977),
• The World of Homosexuals (New Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1977), ISBN-10: 0706904788, ISBN-13: 978-0706904789
• In the Wonderland of Numbers (New Delhi: Orient, 2006).
• Super Memory: It Can Be Yours (New Delhi: Orient, 2011).
•  (Sydney: New Holland, 2012).
• Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child
• Astrology for You (New Delhi: Orient, 2005).

Lecture By Shakuntala Devi

V K Saraswat DRDO Director

V K Saraswat

Vijay Kumar Saraswat is an Indian scientist who presently serves as the Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Secretary of Defence Research and development and the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Minister of Defence.

Saraswat is the key scientist in the development of the Prithvi missile and its induction in the Indian armed forces. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri from the Government of India.
Early life:

Born in 1949,Dr. Saraswat completed his Bachelors in Engineering from Madhav Institute of Technology & Science, Gwalior, MTech from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and obtained a Doctorate in Propulsion Engineering from Osmania University.

Dr. Saraswat, a Ph.D. in Combustion Engineering, started his career in DRDO in 1972 at the Defence
Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad and was responsible for the development of country’s first Liquid Propulsion Engine, DEVIL. As Project Director of Prithvi, he steered the design, development, production and induction of the first indigenous Surface-to-Surface missile system into the armed forces.

The successful testing of Dhanush missile on board a moving ship with high terminal accuracy brought a new dimension in the national defence capability. As Program Director AD (Air Defence), Saraswat pioneered the concept of theatre defence system and integration of national Air Defence elements. He was Director,Research Centre Imarat (RCI) before taking over as CCR&D(MSS) in November, 2005. He established facilities for design, production and testing of engines and the RCS technologies for the missile applications.

Under the able leadership of Dr Saraswat, India has embarked on a challenging, futuristic Air Defence Programme encompassing development of complex anti-ballistic missile systems, radars, C41 systems and integration of battle management resources into a national authority. As Programme Director, he has spearheaded the concept of theatre defence systems and integration of national Air Defence elements. As Director, Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad, he conceptualised and established facilities for development of Micro and Nano Sensors for future avionics.
Honors

Dr Saraswat is fellow of National Academy of Engineering, Aeronautical Society of India, Astronautical Society of India, and Institution of Engineers. He is a member of governing council of SAMEER and member of Board of Research of AICTE, CSIR labs, and board of studies of Osmania University. He is Chairman, Combustion Institute (Indian Section), and Aeronautical Society of India (Hyderabad Branch). Dr. Saraswat is a forerunner in the development of number of critical missile technologies that were under denial due to the Missile Technology Control Regime, thus making India self-reliant in Missile Technologies. He has headed various committees of national importance.

Dr Saraswat is the recipient of DRDO Scientist of the Year Award - 1987, National Aeronautical Prize - 1993, DRDO Technology Transfer Award - 1996 and Performance Excellence Award - 1999. For his outstanding contributions to the Nation, he has been conferred with Padma Shri in 1998.He was also conferred with Padma Bhusan by the Govt. of India in 2013.In December 2012 he was awarded with honorary doctorate from SRM University chennai. 

interview with V K Saraswat