Popularly known as the Human Computer, Shakuntala Devi was a Mathematician and author who became popular for her incredible and almost supernatural calculation skills. Shakuntala quotes over the years captures her love for Mathematics. Shakuntala Devi made it into the Guinness Book of World Record in 1982 when she multiplied two 13-digit numbers (7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779) in 28 seconds at the Imperial College London.
Also read: Indian Women Breaking The Norms
We bring you some of the best Shakuntala Devi quotes.
1. Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is Mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.
2. Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It’s about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.
3. Why do children dread Mathematics? Because of the wrong approach. Because it is looked at as a subject.
4. Numbers have life; they’re not just symbols on paper.
5. I haven’t had any formal education. Through the grace of god, I am gifted in Mathematics and the English language.
6. Students shy away from Maths, but in reality Maths is the best friend of man.
7. Nobody challenges me. I challenge myself.
8. I don’t even possess a car. I ride in auto-rickshaws because I like to be apart of the masses. I don’t want to single myself out as someone up and above.
9. I cannot transfer my abilities to anyone, but I can think of quicker ways with which to help people develop numerical aptitude.
10. It is important to approach Maths only in a spirit of curiosity and discovery.
11. As for numbers, they hate nobody and nobody can afford to hate them.
12. I relax completely when I’m at rest. I don’t think of numbers; I don’t think of work.
13. The concept of zero is attributed to the Hindus. The Hindus were also the first to use zero in the way it is used today.
14. I have a particular affection for zero because it was some of my countrymen who first gave it the status of a number.
15. What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posed by nature.
16. At three, I fell in love with numbers. It was sheer ecstasy for me to do sums and get the right answers. Numbers were toys with which I could play.
17. I was performing at a New Jersey high school, and I asked a class of 2,000 students, ‘How many of you love mathematics?’ and only one hand went up. And that was the hand of the maths teacher!
Besides being one of the best Mathematicians of her time, Shakuntala Devi was one of the first prominent people who lend support to the homosexual community and saw them in positive light. She wrote a book – The World Of Homosexuals, which is one of the first studies of homosexuality in India.
Also read: 13 Heroes From Karnataka You Should Be Proud Of
We hope these Shakuntala Devi quotes will make you love Maths a little more!
