Vivek Raj, a 32-year-old teacher in Kerala's Alappuzha district, has mesmerised the world with his impeccable mathematical skills many a time. Now, he has made yet another achievement by breaking a world record.
He has entered the Guinnes World Records by memorising the 'longest number sequencing in four seconds'. Raj memorised a 28-digit number displayed on a screen for just four seconds and reproduced it in another four seconds at a record event held at Leo XIII School, Alappuzha recently. The 28-digit number was chosen randomly from one quadrillion numbers displayed by a random number sequencing app.
Raj broke the Guiness record in the presencee of prominent people like jail DIG M K Vinod Kumar, Dr Sunil markose, M S Vinod and Guinnes record winners P Abesh, Dominic and Harikrishnan.
With this Raj broke the record of Morteza Javid Ahmedabadi who memorised a 27-digit number in a similar fashion in 2021. The original record in this category was set by Dr Gertmittring from Germany in 1999 by memorising a 22-digit number.
Raj, a graduate in engineering and a master in business administration, works as a maths teacher. Known for his mind calculation skills, Raj had in 2016 made it to the Limca Book of Records for 'continued addition of a two-digit number to itself'. He also holds the record for continuous multiplication of a two-digit number to itself.
Raj said he was inspired from his maternal grandfather's mind calculation skills from a tender age. He has memorised multiplication tables of nearly one lakh numbers. Since 2015, he has been presenting a 'maths show' in which he successfully competes with a calculator's speed in solving random mathematical problems.
He was also featured in a show of The History channel which described him as “India's mathemagician”. Raj is the son of P C Raphael and Anniekutty, both retired schoolteachers.