Even if you consider yourself pretty good at math, mental arithmetic can sometimes be quite the challenge.

It’s okay in a chill environment when you’re, say, adding up scores at the end of a board game with a loved one – but figuring out a complicated multiplication while you’re on the spot or under pressure: that’s tough and relies on some pretty complex brain processes.

It’s no wonder that most of us whip out the phone calculator in that situation; the alternative can be quite overwhelming.

But such is not the case for a 14-year-old math prodigy from Maharashtra, India.

Aaryan Shukla has wowed the world recently, when video footage of his his incredible mathematical processing went viral, earning him six Guinness World Records and the awe-inspired nickname ‘the Human Calculator Kid’.

And that’s because, at just fourteen years of age, Shukla is officially the fastest person in the world to do a number of calculations, including adding 200 four-digit numbers, and multiplying two eight-digit numbers.

While the former took him just 1 minute and 9.68 seconds, the latter (to most of us unthinkable calculation) took 2 minutes and 35.41 seconds.

His title is absolutely well-earned.

Incredibly, Shukla proved his ability to add 100 four digit numbers in just 30.9 seconds, wowing the adjudicators – and everyone else around the world, with his impressive scores, as reported in a Guinness World Records report:

• Fastest time to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers – 30.9 sec
• Fastest time to mentally add 200 four-digit numbers – 1 min 9.68 sec
• Fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers – 18.71 sec
• Fastest time to mentally divide a 20-digit number by a ten-digit number (set of ten) – 5 min 42 sec
• Fastest time to mentally multiply two five-digit numbers (set of ten) – 51.69 sec
• Fastest time to mentally multiply two eight-digit numbers (set of ten) – 2 min 35.41 sec

How does he achieve all this? Well, as Shukla explains in the statement, the practice he’s put in from a young age – and the yoga and meditation he practices daily – are key to his success:

“A lot of things in mental calculations happen in a flash of a second, so I cannot say what happens inside my head, […] I just do it naturally. Basically, it’s so fast that you can’t think, you just need to do the calculations.”

With his new-found fame and incredible arithmetic prowess, it’s clear that Shukla has a bright life ahead of him, with plans to study mathematics of aerospace engineering. But for now, Shukla is relishing the life of a sixfold Guinness World Records holder and mental arithmetic world champion.

As well as simply being fourteen years old, of course.

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