Most students consider Math a difficult subject. For Rahul Murali Krishnan, adding and subtracting numbers is second nature. Recently, he set a record by subtracting 100-digit numbers in 54.89 seconds. This was recognised by Spain-based Official World Record Organisation for Fastest 100-digit Subtraction ever. Rahul says, "I joined an abacus class when I was eight years old and have passed all the ten levels. My overall perspective towards Math and Arithmetic has never changed since then. I used to come back from school and practice solving problems everyday. You ask me to solve the problems at any point during the day and I am always ready for it. Abacus had created a kind of calculation chart in my head and I would be the first one to answer the toughest questions in my peer group."
But how and why Rahul decided to create a world record is an interesting story. Rahul, who recently completed his engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology in Chennai, says, "My father once said that it is not possible for anyone to achieve this record of subtracting 100 digits. I thought that I must give it a try. We know it has been more than three months since this lockdown began. Therefore, I decided to brush up my techniques and knowledge related to Arithmetic. At the same time, I came across an organisation that recognises world records created in Math. I solved over 1,000 problems every day to strengthen my calculation skills. At the same time, I started solving 20-digit subtraction problems, then moved to 50. Initially, I took three minutes to solve a 70-digit problem and finally 100-digits in less than a minute."
Rahul's journey to solving 100-digit problems was not easy. At one point in time, he felt demotivated and thought that these kinds of records are not achievable. Therefore, he left and stopped practicing for a few days. But he pulled himself back and began working on them again, "Finally, I applied and said that I am ready to create one record. The organisation asked me for the date to create a record and I set June 21, co-incidentally, it happened to be Father's Day. The people from the organisation shared a Zoom link with us and we were up for it. While my brother called out the numbers, my mother wrote these digits on a chart. Later I was called into a room to solve the problem. While all this was happening, we recorded the video as the organisation liked to publish it on their website. I was able to subtract all the 100 numbers in 54.89 seconds only. The people from this organisation were also recording the time and verified if the answers are right. They confirmed that I have achieved the record."
When we asked Rahul if he was able to receive an official certificate from the organisation amidst these Corona times, he says, "For now, the organisation has emailed a provisional certificate. However, they have promised that they will profer the official one once the pandemic subsides." Currently, he is pursuing a one year Diploma in Risk Management from Global Risk Management Institute in Gurugram.
