Nov 30, 2013

Biography of Shakuntala Devi the Indian Mathematician Essay

397 Words: Before starting about a mathematician , let us see few mathematicians of India with photos.

Shakuntala Devi  is popularly known as the "Human Computer". She was a child prodigy and vivid mental calculator. Ms Devi had intrinsic quality of mathematical calculation.

Shakuntala Devi was born in a simple Kannad Brahmin family November 4,1929 . Her father's name was Bishawmitra Mani.

Her unique distinctive and divine quality was showing visibility since the age of three. Her father was a circus performer. Her father was rebelled against becoming a temple priest . Ms Devi was also an astrologer and gave remedies purportedly based on date and time of birth. 

  Once she casted a spell by adding 16-digit number with another one and multiplied the result with any of numbers almost instantaneously. After that she found cube root of the the resultant with a speed of electric current. This miracle talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of 'The Guinness Book of World Records'. She had the ingenious potential to tell the day of the week of any given date in the last century in a jiffy.

shakuntala devi mathematician

Out many example I remember one that took place at Imperial College in  in London where she answered in 28 seconds when she was asked to multiply two 13-digit numbers.

Her father noticed her powerful calculation abilities while Ms. Devi was playing cards with him. She used to beat her father not by sleight of hand but by  memorising the cards. Her father left the circus and took her on road shows that displayed her ability at calculation. The most important thing was that she did this without any formal education.

In 1944, Devi went to London with her father

at the age of 15. She returned to home country India in the mid-1960s. She  married Paritosh Bannerji, an IAS officer from Kolkata. They, however, divorced in 1979. On November 4, 2013, Devi was honored with a Google Doodle for for her 84th birthday;which she missed to celebrate.

In April 2013, Devi 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 in the hospital on April 21, 2013. She was 83 years old. She is survived by her daughter, Anupama Banerji.

In her books, She described a world where marriage was obsolete and relationships were personal relationships, with no place for the term "marriage".

In her astrological text, The World of Homosexuals, she wrote:

"Homosexuals, or Homo, are a special case. They don't want to marry anyone, not even family, they don't want to have children. They are quite happy living individually; they do not have a special term for it. They are born as they wish. But they are in no hurry to settle down. They don't have any particular interest in settling down, they just let things come. If you see them living, don't ask them why they don't settle down; they will tell you that they are in no hurry to settle down and that they are in a world of their own, not their neighbour's".

She wrote books for people who wished to "live freely". She encouraged people to pursue the pleasures they wanted to experience, even if they were not approved of by their family. She wrote in The World of Homosexuals:

"There is still a place for marriage; it is a long ceremony which comes after sexual freedom has been enjoyed".

She encouraged people to make their own rules, and told people to live by their own rules. This was a contradiction to the concept of marriage. However, what she did was to give a different meaning to the word "marriage". She gave a new meaning to the word "marriage". She gave marriage a positive meaning. She wrote in one of her books:

"Marriage can be likened to a marriage certificate. It is a document which gives legal identity to a relationship, a record of the relationship, a contract between two individuals so that they have pledged allegiance to each other in life and death, and a contract with their children".

The concept of marriage and the concept of the marriage certificate had a different implication. It was a contract between two individuals who committed themselves to each other in life and death.

Marriage became a contract between two individuals, not between two families nor between two governments.

In her book, The World of Homosexuals, she wrote: "Marriage is a contract between two individuals who commit themselves to each other to enjoy life and to see both their children and their loved ones through thick and thin, for the rest of their lives, whether they like it or not".

She wrote in another book:

"In marriage, we are choosing to give our children a living record of our marital experience and experience of their childhood; and, we are pledging our loyalty to ourselves. It is a self-destructive pledge that if we do not get it right, if we are not sufficiently devoted to our children, then their future would be a waste. Finally they may well suffer unnecessarily. The marriage contract is a contract between two people who pledge allegiance to themselves and then pledge allegiance to their children in future. If we live by our contract, whether we like it or not, then our children will be blessed by what they experience of the relationship that they are blessed with through their father and mother's experience".

She concluded with a powerful and profound statement:

"If you find yourself in a relationship where the contract you agreed to is not being honoured, do not break the contract, break away. Divorce is not a response to an irredeemable defect - divorce is a response to your inability to keep the pledge you made to your children".

When she wrote in The World of Homosexuals:


How to Make a Successful Marriage - Six Prerequisites to a Good, Long-term, Successful Marriage

"In marriage, you don't find a record of someone's marital experience. You find a record of someone's commitment and fidelity to his or her marriage partner; and, there is no greater commitment and fidelity than when you have one spouse committed and faithful unto death". And, this is why I love marriage! A lifetime partnership. A lifetime contract. A lifelong commitment. A lifetime loyalty. A life-long commitment. Marriage is the most sacred of all long-term commitments. And, this is why the institution of marriage is not only the oldest, but also the most sacred.

Marriage is a contract for the duration the partnership and the marriage. It is a lifelong loyalty. It is a lifelong commitment. And, it is an experience and a relationship that must be lived-not just talked about!

I have no intention of belittling the love and commitment that some marriages, especially those of children, are blessed with. However, I don't subscribe to the view that love, loyalty and fidelity in a marriage are a sufficient reason to marry.   I think that there are other factors that are important to consider.  One gets married other than love and loyalty. I believe that the following factors need to be considered in deciding whether to marry:

Six Prerequisites for Successful Marriage Life are:

* Both Husband and wife should comply with the basic belief of Christianity or as per their religious belief.

* They should agree with their fundamental tenets (as it is understood and understood by the couple).

* They have to trust each other to live together happily, consistently as a couple (both with each other) .

* The couple must enhance their loyalty so that they can live together without tension, contention, discord and disagreement (and in this case, disagree).

* The love and loyalty of the partners are enhanced with each other in proportion. It confirms that they are open-minded to each other's views. Open-mindedness and consistency is the hallmark of good, mature love. This is the quality of a couple that is committed to each other needs. It is good to promote the long-term success of marriage. This is the quality that ensures the success of the marriage (of the partners, the marriage and of its offspring).

* The love and loyalty of the prospective partners are enhanced with each other in proportion to the degree to which they can accept each other's shortcomings.

Conclusion:

It is to be noted that the above principles are only relevant if the prospective husband and wife are of legal age and of sound body condition. If the above criteria are not satisfied, the long-term happiness, success, and prosperity of the marriage are unlikely.


1 comment:

  1. Please. It is not Kannad. it is Kannada. The Kannada р▓б is not equal to the Hindi рдб़ in consonant pronouciation. It would be р▓ж್ and р▓ж್ . So it is
    р▓Хр▓и್р▓ир▓б and not р▓Хр▓и್р▓ир▓б್. there is a difference.

    2. It is not Bishawmitra Mani. It is Vishwamitra Mani. There is no such word orpronounciation as Bishawmitra in Kannada.

    ReplyDelete

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