When 12-year-old Chirag Rathi is asked to multiply 42,225 by 645, it takes him about half a second to reply "2,72,35,125". In mathematical prowess reminiscent of the famed Shakuntala Devi, this Class VIII prodigy from Nakud Tripudi, a remote village in UP's Saharanpur district, takes even less time to add numbers that run into lakhs and crores. Hailed as a "wonder kid" in the entire district, Chirag's ability to add, subtract and multiply numbers, up to 20 crore so far, is only strengthening, his teachers claim.
Sensing the "extraordinary gift" that this labourer's son has been blessed with, Chirag's school authorities have appointed a special mathematics teacher who is helping him cover the subject up to Class XII.
Read more of this in a report by Sandeep Rai published in Times of India...
