The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A living legend in her own right

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Sunday, Dec 30, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A living legend in her own right

Shakuntala Devi, the ‘human computer’, is an articulate, down to earth and zestful person as M.L. Melly Maitreyi discovers.

Maths genius: Shakuntala Devi

Shot to fame as a child prodigy and continuing to wow the world with her speed mathematics, age has not slowed down the 68-year young Devi. “In fact, I am getting better and better with age,” guffaws the globe trotting lady. And the incredible speed with numbers “just comes” to her mind.

“I have been doing it since I was three-years-old. Keeping my mind uncluttered helps and however big a calculation may be, the answer flashes in my mind,” she says. Her fame as a mathematics wizard won her invitations from countries across the world.

“I had visited 126 countries but my dream is to set up a mathematics university in twin cities and in Bangalore. One is my home city and the other, my favourite city”.

It is on this mission that Shakuntala Devi was in city last week to take her proposal to the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy seeking the Government’s help to fulfil her ambition.

“The Telugu people have always responded well to my workshops here or abroad and are highly education oriented which is another reason why I chose Hyderabad for setting up my Mathematics University,” the lady says.

What she would have been if not a mathematics wizard or an astrologer of repute? “A housewife with lots of kids,” she chuckles. That brings up the question of her marriage. “I was married once but erased the memory from my mind. To move on in life you have to erase bad experiences. Never clutter the mind with negative things,” she advises.

Author of repute

She is not being philosophical but only being “practical”. Author of several books from maths to cookery as well as children’s stories, she is keen to transform her book In the wonderland of Numbers into a movie and hopes a Telugu filmmaker will be interested to take it up. Shakuntala Devi’s association with Telugu culture goes a long way. She recounts visiting places like Tenali, Pakala as a child with her father . Telugu movie classics like Vandemataram, Gruhalakshmi, Shankarabharanam are her favourites .

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