The unknown genius.

Padma Shri Dr Vashishtha Narayan Singh was born on 2nd April 1946 to  Bahadur Singh(a Police Constable) & Lahaso Devi in Basantpur village of the Bhojpur District in Bihar.

He, a child prodigy, lived a life that can be mounted on the billboard of apathy and neglect but has little to do with the subject that he loved so dearly and lived in its corner of mathematics, after schooling at Neterhat he moved to Patna science college in 1963, where his faculty and principal of the college was so impressed that they insisted the governor and chancellor of the University bend the rules to allow vashishtha Narayan to appear for the BSc examination in his first year in college and then MSc examination the next year. he topped both the examination and become quite the sensation.

He met Professor John L.kelley, who was then the head of the department of mathematics at the University of California. vashishtha impressed kelly with his innate understanding of numbers. Kelley invited vashishtha Narayan to Berkeley for further studies. Kelley even paid for the flight ticket and arranged a scholarship for him, where he completed his PhD in "reproducing kernels & operators with cyclic vector" initially he started working at Berkeley as an assistant professor, and also with US space agency NASA. It is said that at the time of the launch of the Apollo mission in 1969, before the launch of the Apollo the computer had malfunctioned for 30-35 seconds and he began manually calculating during the time they fixed it. The result produced by him and the computers were the same. vashishtha was also reportedly known to challenge Einstein's theory of relativity through his works.

And tragically, at the high of his mathematical success around 1973-74, he started displaying mental instability. he then came back to India and began teaching at IIT Kanpur then moving to the data institute of fundamental research and then India statistical institute Calcutta and then a phase came in his life when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Vashishtha Narayan story can be compared to another great mathematician John Nash both men share a striking life story of early recognition of their intelligence and a brilliant record in academics. and also both were diagnosed with similar diseases but the end was different John nash recovered and continued his work was recognized by the world and further awarded by Nobel prize whereas vashishtha Narayan did not recover due to carelessness and not be known to many people and live a life of anonymity until his death. 

"Had vashishtha been in some developed country the world would have taken great advantage of his genius"

The Bihar mathematician's journey was cut short by mental illness that yanked him away from mathematics and its world. He passed away on November 14, 2019, at the age of 72 leaving behind a thesis, a few letters some scribbles on the wall, and a million questions.

-Trishla