It was a day of ambiguity for 26-year-old B. Sai Kiran.
He could not decide whether to exult over his newly set world record or to mope over the lapse of milliseconds in achieving the task he set about for.
Nevertheless, jubilations broke out as soon as this numerical prodigy, in his second attempt on Monday, successfully subtracted a 70-digit number from another in 60.05 seconds.
Sai Kiran, who set out to achieve it in one minute, fell short of his goal by five milliseconds, still scaling the heights of the world record successfully. Delegates from the Record Holders Republic, United Kingdom, declared on the spot his ‘Super Subtraction Feat' as a world record.
Sai Kiran, a trainer in Vedic Maths and Vedic Memory, failed in the first attempt though. Despite completing his task two seconds before the set time, he committed mistakes in the giant subtraction. He was allowed a second chance which led him to success.
The attempt being for a Guinness World Record, it was ensured that all digits except the first in the minuend are smaller than the corresponding digits in the subtrahend, thereby raising the complexity level of the calculation.
“I am going to use Nikhilam sutra from Vedic Mathematics which is based on the number 10,” Sai Kiran declared prior to the event, “Through my feat, I want to show the greatness of Indian Mathematics to the world.”
While the conventional subtraction is done from right to left, Vedic maths requires it to be done from left to right, he explained.
The event was organised by Institute of Memory Power and Calculation Techniques in association with Bala Sahithya Parishad. Video recording of the event will be sent for an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, the organisers said.
