KOCHI: Does the song ‘Waka waka’ have anything to do with mathematics? If your answer is in the negative, just listen to Sree Sankaran, son of K Jayababu and Indu of Kairali Street, Kaloor.
When Sree Sankaran says the multiplication tables of seven, it is in tune to the music of ‘Waka waka,’ which enthralled millions worldwide during the football world cup this year. Sree Sankaran, a third standard student, mixes mathematics with music to by heart multiplication tables easily! He tells the multiplication tables of eight in the tune of Boney M’s ‘Ra Ra Rasputin.’ You can listen to him saying the tables of four in the tune of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and Boney M’s ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ to say the multiplication table of 11. “It is during the days of the football world cup this year that Sree Sankaran started to master the skill,” says Jayababu, who runs ‘Aryabhatta’, an academy for mathematics.
“When I was watching the world cup, my mother insisted that I learn multiplication tables. Then I started to say the table of four in the tune of ‘Waka waka’,” Sree Sankaran said. “I found it an interesting way of by hearting multiplication tables.”
Besides saying multiplication tables to the tunes of famous songs, Sree Sankaran can tell the position of each English alphabet within no time. He has his own techniques to remember the position of the alphabet. Listen to how he remembers the position of k that occupies the 11nth place in the English alphabet.
“K is like 11. Later, a boy kicked at the centre of the second ‘1’ and thus k got its current shape,” he says with a smile.
kochi@expressbuzz.com