Nov

5

The New York Times is speaking about the recent trends in offshore outsourcing, not of the IT variety, but of the more mathematical one. An increasing number of Indian companies out there are employing hundreds of local teachers who tutor American kids online, helping them out with their K-12 mathematics problems. It’s a trend that was not hard to predict. Indians, unlike many other nationalities, are blessed with superb mathematics skills, thanks to an old-style educational system that stresses mathematical tables and takes India’s elementary school-children through a grind of a process that pretty much assures a solid and successful foundation in the fundamentals of mathematics, especially the multiplication and division aspects of it.

Yes, you can say that again. Indians are good, in fact, very, very good at multiplication and division. We multiply better than anyone else on the planet, and we divide better than anyone else on the planet.

Indians are so adept the art of multiplication that some have predicted we will reach the magic number of 2 billion in our own lifetimes. A hundred years ago, India (including today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh) had about 234 million people. Now a hundred years later, without those two major regions, India’s population is about 5 times as much. (Would have been about 7 times as much if those countries were still a part of India). Assuming India stays intact, and there is no further breaking away of any region, that number should probably multiply anywhere between 3 to 5 times by the end of this century. So even by modest estimates, India’s population at the end of the current century will be very close to the current world population of about 6 billion and some.

As for the art of division, we Indians are better at it than anybody. A glance at one of my other posts about a ghastly murder in the city of Kolkata and the comments that it attracts every day, can give readers an idea about the degree of divisiveness a single issue can spark here. We know how to divide by languages. This guy speaks Punjabi, that woman speaks Gujarati, this boy Marathi and that girl Bengali. We know how to divide by states. A is from Karnataka, B is from Andhra, C is from MP, and D is from UP. We know how to divide by religions. This one is a Muslim, that one is a Hindu, these here are Christians, those there are Parsis, all those around the corner are Sikhs, and then you have Jews and Jains and Buddhists. Amongst these Hindus, those ones there are higher caste Brahmins, these here are lower caste Dalits. Those three next to them are Kshatriyas and the others are Baniyas. In that group of Brahmins, those there are upper caste Rigvedis, and then next to them you have Yajurvedis, and what not. In that group of Yajurvedis, you have madhyandins and the rest. There are some who have this gotra (lineage) and others who have that gotra. Those there are Ninety-sixer Maratha families, and those others are the non-ninety-sixers. Divide, then divide further. Then give it a few more divisions, and divide again. Don’t you dare to stop you moron, divide for God’s sake, for the sake of your religion, for the sake of your lineage, divide damnit! Divide when you are born, divide when you marry, and divide when you die! Divide, you fools, divide!

Yes, we know how to multiply and we know how to divide. Nobody does it better, period!


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9 Comments so far

  1. American Singles » Indians know how to multiply and divide better than anyone else on November 5, 2007 3:31 am

    [...] It’s Indiatime wrote an interesting post today on Indians know how to multiply and divide better than anyone elseHere’s a quick excerpt The New York Times is speaking about the recent trends in offshore outsourcing, not of the IT variety, but of the more mathematical one. An increasing number of Indian companies out there are employing hundreds of local teachers who tutor American kids online, helping them out with their K-12 mathematics problems. It’s a trend that was not hard to predict. Indians, unlike many other nationalities, are blessed with superb mathematics skills, thanks to an old-style educational system that stress [...]

  2. naren on November 5, 2007 10:02 am

    You do Indians injustice. There is a unity in our diversity. Despite the different languages, we all speak English. We may have many states but either of the two major corrupt political parties always manages to get a popular mandate thus proving the think-alikeness. And despite all the religions and castes; we worship cricket- our true faith. If these things do not bind our nation together; what does?

  3. arun on November 5, 2007 3:44 pm

    friends, always be positive…
    1)when you will see a glass half-feeled with water…would you consider it half-empty or half-full?.. this is attitude…it indicates your future too…
    2)if you think positive…whatever comes in the life gets turn in positive only…

    in india from last 1500 years we are travelling through all the negative force just what the ‘india time’ has produced the thought above. so please spread the good energy for human’s good future…don’t blame the dark,light your own.
    we all are the part who are responsible in one way for all the systems here in this planet, it is not the question about indians only, this is absolutly mind curuption…
    we are intelegents(?), please don’t waste our intelegency in this way…
    I know someone can say that, this as a FACT…but we are the part of this system is also the fact…
    again to blame is not the way…and if we are putting it for debate, there should be some conclusion where we are really going to act on. again if my mother got very serious illness or disease, no one get her to die or help her to die… anyone will try till end to save her, it is again the fact that we are loosing that sensetivity too.
    …PLEASE if you people are really burn in your heart about indianness, go in 100s of villages where they stop all the dividation rules…really so many villages are there that they don’t have police stations, not even court, not even election. they are praying together (yes, all the Muslims, christians, sikhs, hindus, and to whome you call dalits brother and sisters), working together with respecting to each others.
    BUT we don’t want to look near by…
    We will blame on the systems, for getting our self fulfil, isn’t it….?

    if our forefathers had dreamt that “VASUDHAIV-KUTUMBAKAM”..what was the idia behind?
    …to convert all the humans in Hindu?
    …were they that narrow minded?
    without being good human being you can not be anyone….
    and that we have to try in our each act if we are considering intelectual ourself…
    if we have the platform or if we really that responsible…we should act that way using the platform in good manners…

    Divide, you fools, divide!
    …it shows your deprssion…(we are using dry media over here, so no one can get that it is real or just for rising the issue)
    …brother or sister,
    don’t cry…INDIA ONLY WILL MAKE ONE…or WILL SHOW ONE PATH TO THE WHOLE WORLD again.

    lot’s a things are there,
    1)I can’t express all my thoughts in english.
    2)this type of expression should be heart to heart…not machine to machine.

    Obey GOD, do good, be good…

  4. varma on November 25, 2007 7:20 pm

    hi hw r u

  5. Fabian Doulton on January 10, 2008 2:33 am

    I love the article about Indians being great mathematicians.

    We are also great musicians, unlike the Pakistanis !

    As far as the exponential population growth, I have one thing to say : I blame the people at Doordarshan….If there were better TV programs in India, people wouldn’t be making babies !!!

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