(But Suresh Venkatasubramanian can): Sunil Laxman says there are advantages to the desi approach of by-hearting your maths. Namely that you don’t look like an idiot when asked to multiply two small numbers.
My wife went to the bank yesterday to make a simple cash deposit… in two $100 bills, and nine $20 bills…“Hey John, what’s 9*20? There’s some problem with my computer.” My wife’s standing there, and her jaw drops… Meanwhile, John’s breaking into a sweat.
“Uh….I’m not sure….9 times 20 is….”
My wife’s getting impatient… “One hundred and eighty,” she says.
John looks at her in awe, and says, “I think you’re right! You must be really good with numbers…”
I’m in awe of the cashiers in little, obscure banks in India (State Bank of Mysore, anyone?) who count faster than you can key in the numbers into a calculator.
This kind of innumeracy is my father’s favorite story about the American education system, right after ‘we were multiplying six-digit numbers in first grade’ (which he inflicted on me) and a Ramanujan-like story where he nearly solves an unsolvable problem, awing the textbook author over parcel post.
Of course, the genius of America is that its systems are so good, you can run a bank with tellers who can’t do math ;)
