India’s forgotten maths genius

Brut India

He was just a boy from a village in Bihar. And then, the world found out he was a genius.

Transcript

00:00The Dishawar man you see here was a maths wizard who went from Bihar to Berkeley.

00:05Legends about him say he helped NASA send the first person to the moon when the computers

00:11briefly malfunctioned and that he challenged the Albert Einstein theory of relativity.

00:16But the passage of time obscured his story.

00:19Vashisht Narayan Singh was born on 2nd April 1942 in a village in Bihar called Basantpur.

00:26His mother was a housewife and father was a police constable.

00:30He was the eldest of 5 children.

00:32It was said that people would come to know their village by Vashisht Babu's name more

00:37than its original name of Basantpur.

00:39His academic prowess manifested at an early age when he cracked the entrance exam for

00:44Neterhart school after class 6.

00:46Neterhart was a residential school which produced future bureaucrats and even scientists.

00:51More than 3000 students from here went on to become IAS, IPS and administration officers.

00:57Vashisht joined the school in 1957.

01:00After he moved on from the school, his maths teacher would remember which seat Vashisht

01:05used to occupy.

01:06And then Vashisht pursued BSc at Patna Science College.

01:10Here he defied his maths teacher who took him straight to the principal's office.

01:15But the principal recognized Vashisht as metal and requested the vice-chancellor to let the

01:20student appear for the BSc final year honours paper.

01:24The student who had not even finished the first year yet ended up topping the final

01:28year exam.

01:29Speaking of him, a senior said he used to remain confined in his room solving the mathematical

01:35problems and hardly hung out with other students.

01:37One time, an international conference was held at the college.

01:41Professor John L. Kelly of the University of California attended it.

01:45When he listed 5 maths problems, Vashisht solved them all.

01:49Kelly was obviously impressed and invited Vashisht to study at the University of California

01:54in Berkeley.

01:55That's how the boy from Bihar made his way to Berkeley where he pursued MSc and PhD.

02:00By the age of 23, he held a PhD in mathematics.

02:04Vashisht checked up on his family through letters during his time at Berkeley.

02:08He once told his family not to get his sister married and use that money for her education

02:13instead.

02:14The family put off her marriage and she became a graduate.

02:17Vashisht returned to India in 1971.

02:21Two years later, he got married but the relationship didn't last long.

02:25His wife had noticed some oddness in his behaviour.

02:28It was said that Vashisht's divorce was the tipping point for his mental health.

02:33He worked at IIT Kanpur, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and the Indian

02:38Statistical Institute in Kolkata.

02:40But he couldn't serve these jobs for long.

02:43When Vashisht stopped eating and became violent, his family sent him to a mental asylum where

02:48he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

02:51He stayed at the Central Institute of Psychiatry in Kankerachi for 11 years.

02:56He showed signs of improvement and came back home when his father passed away.

03:00But now, he didn't want to go back to the asylum.

03:03Considering his improvement, he was allowed to stay back home.

03:06His younger brother Ayodhya was in the army and going to Pune where he was posted.

03:11Vashisht tagged along.

03:12But he disappeared from the train.

03:14Four years later, he was found near his ex-wife's village picking something out of a garbage

03:19dump, recalled his brother.

03:21This was in 1993.

03:23Once this discovery hit the newspapers, the then Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav

03:29got Vashisht admitted to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru.

03:34His brother Ayodhya's posting was changed to Bengaluru so he could stay close.

03:39When Ayodhya was posted to Jalandhar, he took Vashisht along with him.

03:43Then some alumni members of Netarhat school suggested that Vashisht should be moved to

03:48Patna for better care.

03:50They would try to chat with him and make Vashisht recall earlier days.

03:54But he was slipping away.

03:56When the mathematical genius passed away in 2019, a video posted to Twitter showed his

04:01family members struggling to get an ambulance for his body.

04:04The Bihar government then stepped in and sanctioned an ambulance.

04:08One year after his death, Dr. Vashisht Narayan Singh was awarded the fourth highest civilian

04:13honour of Padma Shri in 2020.

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