Back to the abacus in Tbilisi, Georgia

In a local office supplies store, two Georgian women - Lala and Gulu - still practice the art of the counting using an abacus, which is quite commonly used in Asia.

The abacus is a counting frame, made of metal rods and beads of two colours. There are differing views on the origin of the counter abacus; some say it originated in India, Mesopotamia or Egypt, whereas others say it was a Chinese instrument and that Christians brought it to the East. The women explained that their frame is a Russian abacus, called a schoty.

The Russian abacus has nine wires with ten beads on each of the eight wires and four beads on the ninth wire (for quarter-ruble fractions). The middle two beads on each wire are different colours to stand out from the remaining beads. This helps the user remember what they have just counted.

The Chinese abacus has a wooden frame in the middle that separates beads into two portions. The upper portion contains two beads and the lower portion has a set of five beads. The Chinese abacus can perform functions such as square root and cube root, in addition to the usual calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Unlike the calculator, the abacus doesn’t actually count. The user is adept at mental arithmetic and uses the abacus as a visual aid to remember the calculations.

The Georgian women were introduced to the abacus at school. For suspicious customers, their back-up is a calculator, because they do not have a computerized till or cash register. However, they were significantly faster at calculating a range of numerical tasks with their abacus than with their calculator.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog