Math-Magic

The Bhawanipur Education Society College hosted “Math-Magic”, a session for interested students on solving everyday mathematical problems in fun and simple ways. The event was headed by Mr. Debdeep Chakraborty, Chief Mentor of IMS Kolkata, with over 19 years of experience having mentored over 10k mentees.

After brief exchanges the event officially commenced at 11:27 a.m. with an introduction of Mr. Debdeep Chakraborty by Sofia Parveen, and subsequently, he was felicitated by Prof. Nitin Chaturvedi, from the Department of Commerce (Morning) while attendees applauded, Mr. Chakraborty spoke briefly about himself and how he came to be a Chief Mentor in this prestigious institution before getting on with his presentation for the day.

The presentation began with him explaining to students the importance of knowing basic math and how mathematics affects the different spheres of our daily lives like calculating taxes, investments, loans, wealth and expense management, etc. He spoke briefly on professions that pivot entirely on the fluent knowledge of mathematics such as chartered accountancy, sales management, financial management, marketing management, and the like.

Then he came to the fun part, where he turned to teaching the engrossed attendees, shortcuts for calculating basic problems with the help of early Vedic math rules that were developed in ancient India. The explanations were delivered in a simplified manner such that even students with negligible mathematics background were able to grasp the concepts without much difficulty. He took the students through a variety of problems demonstrating how to solve each problem while simultaneously letting students follow his prompts and calculate the answers themselves.

Next up was a fun timed test with 11 questions, each different from the other, to be solved by students under 30 seconds. The Society Hall buzzed with hushed, excited talk as attendees scrambled to solve the questions while he sailed through them. Seemingly bamboozling at first glance, the problems turned out to be simple as he started discussing the answers and logic behind each one of them.

His session ended, and he gave a final tip to the students to approach daily mathematics without trepidation and to study books on early Vedic mathematics. Towards the end, Prof. Dilip Shah, Rector & Dean of Student Affairs, subsequently joined the end note by sharing a line of wisdom on the importance of mathematics upon the students before the attendees dispersed for the day.

Reporter – Saptak Roychoudhury
Photographer – Arpita Biswas