Brilliant at Math, A girl of 1930s and 40s, My Kantafoi (Aunt Kanta)

Hi all,

March is a women's history month. One of my 3rd cousins sent me a pic of our aunt (her aunt and my second aunt). 

I would like to tell this short story that I was told and the little I know of this amazing lady who was brilliant at Mathematics. 

She and my dad were cousins as well as agemates and classmates. Her first name is Kanta. We fondly called her Kantafoi. (Foi means dad's sister)

She was born in 1933 in a village of Navagam in the Gujarat State of India, in a nominal Christian home. She had a sister and two brothers. She would have been 88 years old. Today March 4th 2021 is her 10th death anniversary. Since my dad was the only child who survived he was close to his cousins. 

Years back when I saw her she was a STRONG, beautiful, light skinned, light brown cat eyed, the tallest woman I saw back then; hard working and splitting woods in a village with her might and a lovely smile and, engaging in a conversation with me about how she was close to Nandu, her dear cousin brother, aka my dad! 

Then years later, my dad told me their childhood story. He said with joy yet sadness. He said, they both were in the same class in a nearby, bigger village called Vaso. They sat next to each other as cousin brother and sister. They were close as siblings. He continued narrating: Kanta was the brightest and ace at Math in their class. She topped the class. When the teacher asked a Math question, and you didn't raise a hand with a ready answer you were in for a good whip. Ouch!!! But before anyone else knew she always had the answer ready on her lips and whispered it to my dad with even a quick method how that answer was right. My dad said they would all raise hands sheepishly but after she had given him the answers and the methods he smiled breathing in a sigh of relief, incase teacher called on him to answer. 😀

Now the sad part: when they finished 5th grade, her dad decided it was enough formal school learning for a village girl of that time regardless of how brilliant she was at studying. 😢

So my dad went to the parents and uncle, (gotta love my dad for being there empowering women even in early 1940s to study further) pleading with them to let Kanta continue studying since she was SO brilliant at Math. Sadly they refused and her formal studies came to an end and she continued to learn to settle as girl at home doing house chores. Kantafoi eventually got married in India and had kids of her own.   

Fast forward, her other two brothers studied further. One became a teacher and another a post office employee.  And my dad became a Mathematician 😀🙌with double degrees in Mathematics and Physics and a professor at Gujarat university, and a teacher but later gave it up to teach high school students at grassroots level in the beautiful Degoretti suburbs of Nairobi Kenya, East Africa. 

Before my dad went to Degoretti High School, the Math and Physics students there had suffered a great deal due to lack of a good teaching. The year my dad taught they got 100% pass result and the form 5 and 6 (highschool junior and senior) students carried my dad on their shoulders around the school (I wish I had the photo) thanking him for teaching them with his great Math skills. Many know my dad to be a good Mathematician. But even in his achievements he never ever forgot his dear cousin Kanta. He always said he was no where near Kanta. And till his death he grieved the painful reality of old that she was not allowed to study further just because of her gender. 

Years later in Nairobi, my dad said with a sadness in his heart that had Kanta been allowed to study further, she would have stood first and earned a good name for herself, blessing the world with her brains. I loved hearing about her story from my dad. Yes, she would have, but I still think she taught and blessed my dad even as a young girl till 5th grade and empowered my dad to be a great Mathematician that taught many students who have entered from engineering, to medicine to research science, to businesses and to other fields, impacting and blessing the world! 

Today I want to honor her as a young Math girl and a young teacher of 30s and 40s.

God, we are proud of Kantafoi. Thank you for blessing her with brilliant Math brain. Thank you for my dad too who believed and learnt from her, pleaded for her and stood up for women empowerment even back in those years in a tiny village. 

God's work of empowerment continues in every field, every village and every corner of the world. 

Kalpana Christian Sharma

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