Shakuntla Devi , born on 4th november, 1929, was an Indian writer and mental calculator, popularly known as the ‘human computer’. Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. She was born in Bangalore, India.
Born to Hindu Kannada Brahmin parents, Devi was a precocious child and she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore without any formal education.
Shakuntala Devi wrote a number of books in her later years, including novels as well as texts about mathematics, puzzles, and astrology. She wrote the book The World of Homosexuals, which is considered the first study of homosexuality in India. She treated homosexuality in a positive light and is considered a pioneer in the field.
Shakuntla Devi travelled the world demonstrating her arithmetic talents, including a tour of Europe in 1950 and a performance in New York City in 1976.
In 1988, she travelled to US to have her abilities studied by Arthur Jensen a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen tested her performance of several tasks, including the calculation of large numbers. Examples of the problems presented to Devi included calculating the cube root of 61,629,875 and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Jensen reported that Shakuntala Devi provided the solution to the above mentioned problems (395 and 15, respectively) before Jensen could copy them down in his notebook. Jensen published his findings in the academic journal Intelligence in 1990.
In 1977, she wrote The World of Homosexuals, the first study of homosexuality in India.
In april 2013, she was admitted to a hospital in Bangalore with respiratory problems. Over the following two weeks she suffered from complications of the heart and kidneys. She died on 21st april, 2013 in the hospital. Sje was 83 years old.
On 4th november, 2013 she was honoured with a Google Doodle.
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