Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi was an Indian writer and mental calculator. She strove to simplify numerical calculations for students. Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. The certificate for the record was given posthumously on 30 July 2020.

About Shakuntala Devi in brief

Summary Shakuntala DeviShakuntala Devi was an Indian writer and mental calculator. She strove to simplify numerical calculations for students. Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. The certificate for the record was given posthumously on 30 July 2020, despite Devi achieving her world record on 18 June 1980 at Imperial College, London. She wrote a number of books in her later years, including novels as well as texts about mathematics, puzzles, and astrology. She saw homosexuality in a positive light and is considered a pioneer in the field. In 1977, she wrote The World of Homosexuals, the first published academic study of homosexuality in India, for which she was criticised.

In the documentary For Straights Only, she said that her interest in the topic was because of her marriage to a homosexual man and her desire to look at homosexuality more closely to understand it. In a 2009 interview, Devi recalled Indira Gandhi telling her: ‘You’re a roving ambassador, a mathematical ambassador, who can win friends for India and build up close relationship between country to country’ In the mid-1960s, she stood against the former Prime Minister of Medak Medak, saying she wanted to end the people being fooled by Mrs Gandhi.