City boys finish second in national abacus competition

They do lengthy calculations in seconds and finish three-hour maths exams in school in about an hour and a half.

They do lengthy calculations in seconds and finish three-hour maths exams in school in about an hour and a half. Recently,Sanchit Gupta,a class VII student,and Hitane Arora,a class VI student both from DAV Public School added another feather to their cap after they finished second in the 8th National Abacus Competition held at Chennai.

Rashmi Taneja,who runs an abacus centre and had trained the students,said: Abacus was introduced to Ludhiana in 2004,though it used to be very popular in South. We used to get feedback that South Indians are very intelligent but mathematics was not meant for the North Indians. Since 2004,however,North India has produced many champions in various abacus competitions. Apart from making mathematics easy for the students,it also acts as a tool to

develop both sides of brain leading to an increase in the child’s concentration,listening ability,retention power,among others.

Gupta and Arora are doing the advanced abacus course after school at the Gurdev Nagar Abacus Centre and both said: We joined abacus in Class III. We used to be average in maths till then and now mathematics has become our favourite subject.

Gupta laughs and adds: At times,my friends ask me as to what magic I do in making calculations in a few seconds,for which,they take a long time. Says Arora: Inever use a rough paper for calculations now as I can do them orally.

Apart from Ludhiana students bagging second prize in the national competition,Rashmi Taneja’s first abacus centre at BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School bagged the best franchise award for the third year in a row. Five students from BCM also won prizes in their respective categories as well.

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Sanchit Gupta