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Learning the write thing

Mind power Ability to analyse problems fast and deliver the right answer is the success mantra

Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Mind game The unique mode promotes agility

A combined knowledge of graphology, abacus and mind mathematics is proving to be the right method of taking on the cutthroat competition that is witnessed even at the high school level.

Eb-Abacus, an institution imparting tips on effective tackling of personality-related problems to schoolchildren, has become the destination of students desirous of doing well in the most-dreaded subject at their level – mathematics.

As you enter the institute, you confront children mugging up lessons or scribbling mathematical problems on a piece of waste paper. Each child carrying a set of Abacus made of beads and making gestures with fingers of both hands, keeping the eyes closed.

Trainer N. Prema Latha reads aloud a mathematical problem comprising two or three digit numbers and 10 to 16 rows – “59 plus, 12 minus, 92 plus, 45 plus, 22, … she goes on and by the time the lady pronounces the last number: “and minus 4…” the students shout back the answer “211.”

The whole exercise seems faster than a calculator, but with the same precision. How do they develop these skills? “It is only practice that makes a man perfect and our children practise mathematical equations of varying difficulty on their fingers, on Abacus apparatus or in their mind every day for half-an-hour,” explains Ms. Latha.

“This is like going back to basics in writing skills or computing deliberately, which no educational institution promotes these days,” opines the Director of Eb-Abacus institute K. Dhanunjaya Rao. What began three years ago, as an effort to train dullards and children lagging behind in academics, is now a training ground for those desiring to have an edge over others.

Renowned graphologist A. Ranadheer Kumar analyses handwriting of every child here to ascertain his strengths and weaknesses. The children are asked to write anything of their choice on a plain sheet of paper and the graphologist prescribes correction in the handwriting by suggesting right margins and assesses the child’s personality traits based on his strokes.

Minor correction in strokes clubbed with computational skills can bring about a sea change among adamant children. Concentration levels have phenomenally improved with this small correction in handwriting and abacus has helped them drive out fear for mathematics.

P. Bhavan, a student of seventh class in Top Kids School, had a problem in answering the entire question paper in three hours. Following three-year training at the Eb-Abacus, the boy stands among the toppers and manages to find enough time to revise his answer sheets 15 minutes ahead of the deadline.

Mathematics was a nightmare for B. Pavani, a sixth class student from Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer. She joined the special summer coaching camp at the institute, and within a short span of a year, she is a transformed girl.

After overcoming their fears in the subject, a majority of them are aiming for an entry into the portals of the Indian Institute of Technology. R. Piyush has completed four levels of abacus/mind maths at the institute and is counted among the best students.A few movements made with fingers of both hands and the children transform the most difficult of the mathematical problems into a cakewalk. Everything is done in a fraction of a second, be it addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. The only pre-requisite is a thorough drilling of mathematical tables from 2 to 9.

RAMESH SUSARLA

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