Shakuntala Devi Age, Death, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Name Earned	Human Computer
Profession(s)	Writer, Mathematician
Famous For	Her extraordinary skills in arithmetics
Physical Stats & More
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Career
Awards, Honours, Achievements	• Most Distinguished Woman Of The Year by the University of Philippines (1969) • Ramanujan Mathematical Genius Award in Washington D.C (1988) • Awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award one month prior to her death (2013)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	4 November 1929 (Monday)
Birthplace	Bengaluru, karnataka, India
Date of Death	21 April 2013
Place of Death	Bengaluru, karnataka, India
Age (at the time of death)	83 Years
Death Cause	Respiratory, Heart, and Kidney Problems
Zodiac sign	Scorpio
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Bengaluru, karnataka, India
School	She went to a convent school only for 3 months when she was 10 years old.
College/University	Did not attend
Educational Qualification	She did not attain any formal education.
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Kannada Brahmin
Food Habit	Vegetarian
Controversy	Shakuntala Devi vs Shyam Manav: On 25 May 1985, an FIR was filed against Shakuntala Devi in Nagpur, Maharashtra, over her astrology and future prediction practices. The FIR was registered on a complaint made by Shyam Manav, an Indian social reformer, rationalist, and writer who is the National Convenor of an organisation named Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti that combats superstitions. According to Manav, Shakuntala once used an advertisement that stated, “God can tell correct fortunes, so can Shakuntala Devi.” Shyam Manav once referred to Shakuntala Devi as a 'fraud' and said that he and his team had proven her predictions wrong, and due to this, Shakuntala did not attend an event which was supposed to be held in Nagpur, Maharashtra. [1]Shyam Manav - YouTube [2]Dhruv Rathee - YouTube
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of her death)	Divorced
Marriage Date	Year 1960
Family
Husband/Spouse	Paritosh Banerjee (an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kolkata; 1960-1979)
Children	Son- None Daughter- Anupama Banerjee
Parents	Father- Name not known (a circus performer) Mother- Name not known

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shakuntala Devi

• Shakuntala Devi was born into a financially weak family in Bengaluru.
• She could not receive her formal education due to her family’s poor financial condition.

• When she was 3 years old, her father noticed her ability to do quick calculations and remember numbers while he was playing card games with her.

• At the age of 5, she started calculating cube roots.

• When her father recognised her talent, he took her on the road shows and displayed her talent of doing quick calculations.

• Soon, Shakuntala started earning money by showcasing her talent.

• At the age of six, Shakuntala displayed her talent to the faculty of the University of Mysore.

• She had also demonstrated her talent at the Annamalai University, Osmania University, and the universities of Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam.

• In 1944, her father took her to London.

• By 1944, Shakuntala received wide recognition and travelled to different parts of the world demonstrating her expertise in mathematics.

• She moved to countries like the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka, Italy, Canada, Russia, France, Spain, Mauritius, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

• Once she was asked to multiply two randomly picked 13 digit numbers —7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779. She gave the correct answer within 28 seconds. This incident booked her place in the ‘Guinness Book of Records’ in 1982.
  

  Shakuntala Devi in her young age

• At the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA, Shakuntala was asked to calculate the 23rd root of a 201-digit number. She solved the problem within 50 seconds, 10 seconds before the Univac computer could solve it.
  

  Shakuntala Devi solving a maths problem

• Shakuntala had written many books on astrology, mathematics for children, puzzles, cookbooks, and novels.

• She had even penned down ‘The World of Homosexuals,’ the first comprehensive study of homosexuality in India.
  

  Shakuntala Devi’s book on Homosexuality

• Shakuntala had opened Shakuntala Devi Education Foundation Public Trust to aid the underprivileged kids to attain quality education.
  

  Shakuntala Devi’s trust

• Google honoured her with a Google Doodle for her achievements on her 84th birthday on 4 November 2013.
  

  Shakuntala Devi’s Google Doodle

• A deep research on her abilities was carried out by the psychology professor, Arthur Jensen, from the University of California. He has mentioned the outcomes in the academic journal “Intelligence.”

• Shakuntala had attended a convent school for 3 months and then expelled out because of non-payment of her school fees.

• She had featured on the BBC show where the host, Leslie Mitchell, presented her a complex math problem. Shakuntala solved the problem within a few seconds but the host said that her answer was incorrect as it didn’t match the answer which was calculated by their team. Later, the host realised that Shakuntala’s answer was correct. After the incident got spread across the world she was titled as the “Human Computer.”

• A biopic on her life is slated to release in 2020 in which the Bollywood actress, Vidya Balan will be portraying her character.

• Here’s an interesting video about Shakuntala Devi’s biography: