Neelkanth Bhanu Prakash, the time has come to remember this name. This boy from Hyderabad is now the fastest ‘human calculator’ in the world. Neelkanth has won the first gold medal for India at the Mental Calculation World Championship 2020 held in London.
13 countries participated
Neelkanth, who graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, got first place in this competition. 13 countries participated in this competition. Neelkanth claims that this is the first time India has won gold medal in the Mental Calculations World Championship.
The judges were stunned
Neelkanth has also broken the records of Scott Flensburg and Shakuntala Devi. Even the judges were surprised by Neelkanth’s speed during the Mind Sports Olympic competition. The 21-year-old, Neelkanth, who lives in Moti Nagar, Hyderabad, also has a world record for fastest calculation.
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Many records have their names
According to India Times, Neelkanth has made several records. He is considered the master of mental arithmetic. During the lockdown, he has been giving online classes to children from 8th to 12th class. At first, about 100 students were associated with him. Gradually this number kept increasing. Now about one lakh students are taking advantage of his classes. By starting a project named ‘Exploring Infinities’, he is also working for the children studying in government schools to make them genius in maths.
For him, this competition was ‘A big mental sport’
Like most other competitors, Bhanu gives credit to his rigours practice. It’s not as simple as sitting at a desk and studying, instead, Bhanu takes it as a “big mental sport.”
He said: “I’ve prepared myself to not just be a quick mathematician but a quick thinker.”
At a younger age, Bhanu would practice for six to seven hours a day after school. But since winning championships and records, he does not practice formally as much each day. Instead, he said: “I rely on unstructured practice where I keep thinking about numbers all the time. I practice with loud music on, talking to people, catching and playing cricket, because this is when your brain is being trained to do multiple things at the same time.” He showcased this by reciting the 48 times table in the middle of this interview.