Shakuntala DeviGolden Laurel (Karnataka, India) 2013
SHAKUNTALA DEVI – An Indian writer and mental calculator, popularly known as the “human computer” A child prodigy, her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records.
In a family headed by a Circus Acrobat on ‘Trapeze’ & ‘Tightrope’ was born a girl, who, too, was a master of Acrobatics, but it involved Brain and not Brawn. From the age of 3, she let out glimpses of her innate wizardry with numbers. By the time she turned 6, she was already demonstrating her métier for Calculation at the University of Mysore and then, reaching adulthood, she sent the world reeling under the might of her Intellect.
At University of Dallas, she was asked to give the 23rd Root of a 201-Digit number and she answered it correctly in just 50 seconds, while it took a ‘UNIVAC 1108’ Computer full one minute to do that. An honest-to-goodness definition of ‘Genius’…!