Growing up how many of you remember disliking math with a passion? Memorising tables even up to 20 was a humongous task that made most of us want to tear our hair out!
But not for 12-year-old Chirag Rathi who hails from the far-flung village of Nakud Tripudi in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district.
If you were to walk into the eighth grader’s classroom and ask him to add, subtract or multiply numbers ranging up to 20 crore, the right answer would come before you even manage to get your calculator out and punch in the numbers!
Chirag, a class 8 student from Saharanpur who knows multiplication tables till 20 crore, says, I want to become a scientist and make my country proud. I also want to call Modi ji and Yogi ji to my village. pic.twitter.com/MEGudGjSUo
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 18, 2018
Dubbed the wonder kid and the math wiz of the entire district, this child of a construction labourer is being compared to legendary mathematicians like Shakuntala Devi.
Chirag’s school, after identifying the unique gift of the child prodigy, has appointed a special mathematics teacher who is helping the 12-year-old master the art of numbers and formulae up to the level of Class 12.
Needless to say, the math wiz is cracking the subject– the difficulty level of Grade 12 with absolutely no difficulty.
Speaking to the Times of India, Vishwas Kumar, principal of Jila Singh Public School where Chirag studies, said the kid’s exceptional math skills were noticed by his teachers right from Class IV.
“Even during that time, he was far ahead of his schoolmates and teachers,” he says
In a video interview with ANI, Chirag’s father, Narender Rathi, who is a construction labourer says, “I just want my kid to take the name of the nation forward. I will everything in my power to help him achieve his dream of becoming a scientist. We may not have the financial capacity to fund it at the moment, but I will do everything in my power to help him. Be it selling my land or my kidney.”
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Moved by Narendra’s financial crisis as the sole breadwinner feeding a family of four and young Chirag’s academic prowess, his school has waived off the student’s fees. It is even helping him with free books now.
When asked about how he manages to calculate these multiple digit numbers in mere seconds, a shy Chirag says, “Numbers are fun. The answers just come to me naturally. My peers often accuse me of using a special technique or formula, but I don’t have any of that.”
He aspires to become a scientist and make his country proud. “I also want to call Modi ji and Yogi ji to my village,” he says in the ANI interview.
Feature Image in-set credit: Times of India
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