Shakuntala Devi, India's own human computer, is no more

A mathematical genius with a computer-like mind - this is how most people describe Shakuntala Devi. The legend is no more amongst us, having passed away on April 21 at the age of 83 after a prolonged illness.

Devi, who had no formal education and who simply picked up reading and writing, even while helping her magician father with card tricks at a circus, had the ingenous ability to tell the day of the week of any given date in the last century in a jiffy.

"God's gift. A divine quality," is how Devi had once felt of her unique distinction that began showing visibility since the age of three. She has been quoted as saying that none in her family showed any signs of the same head for figures. "Not even remotely, although my dad was a stage magician."

Unlike many other child prodigies who lose their special abilities on turning adult, the math wiz continued harnessing her talent and displayed her prowess in 1977, when she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. In the same year in Dallas, she competed with a computer to see who gives the cube root of 188138517 faster and she won.

On June 18, 1980 she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered the question in 28 seconds flat. This feat earned her a mention in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records.

She has to her credit several books such In the Wonderland of Numbers, which talks about a girl Neha and her fascination for numbers. She developed the concept of `mind dynamics`.