Sir Vashishtha Narayan Singh: We are guilty of neglecting this genius.

(Year 1940  to 14 November 2019)

Sir Vashishtha Narayan Singh

We are guilty of neglecting this genius.

It deeply saddens that the mathematician who challenged Einstein's theory of relativity and could have been in the league of Sir. Srinivasa Ramanujan; died unknown in the web of poverty, suffering from schizophrenia.

His soul is supposed to get some consolation, as he was not the only masterpiece we did not preserve. We as a nation on one hand hold the distinction of leaving budding talents to fend for themselves during the period of their struggle and on another hand fail to treasure shining stars once they start fading away from the center stage due to cruelty of life.

We would not leave any photo opportunity with proven few, award them with cash, job, land and what not, make money by making movies on them, offer them tickets to contest elections but, would not have provided them even basic resources when they needed the most, that is during their formative years of grind, as many of them would come from poor economic background.

Sir Vashishtha Narayan Singh a child prodigy received recognition as a student when he was allowed by Patna University to appear for examination in the first year of it’s two year BSc (Hons.) Mathematics course; and was allowed to appear for MSc examination the next year.

He joined University of California, Berkeley in 1965 and received PhD in ‘Reproducing Kernels and Operators with a Cyclic Vector (Cycle Vector Space Theory)’ in 1969 under doctoral advisor was John L. Kelley.

After receiving his PhD, he joined the Washington University as an associate professor. He later worked at NASA and then returned to India in 1974. He taught at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. With worsening condition in late 1970s, he was admitted to the Central Institute of Psychiatry in Kanke, Jharkhand and left from there in 1985. He was lost during his train journey to Pune in 1989 and was apparently found begging four years later in 1993 in Doriganj near Chhapra of Saran district. He was then admitted to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. In 2002, he was treated at the institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Delhi.

In 2014, he was appointed as a visiting professor at the Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University (BNMU) in Madhepura.

It is also said that at the time of launch of Apollo, all the devices stopped, the computer malfunctioned for 30 to 35 seconds. But, Sir Vashishtha Narayan Singh started calculating. When the computer got fixed, his mathematical calculations and computer’s calculations were exactly the same.

He died on 14 November 2019 at Patna Medical College Hospital  after prolonged illness where family members of the country's prominent mathematician Sir. Vashishtha Narayan Singh were forced to wait for an ambulance outside Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), with his body on a stretcher for two hours!

Apathy of successive governments, who do not have any written down policy and program to cultivate, develop and honor talents on an on-going basis, has been the primary reason for brain drain from this nation.

There are enough sparks but, need of the hour is to institutionalize system to cull out diamonds from different field and turn them into masterpieces, by providing them encouragement, support and eco-system.

I offer my homage to great mathematician of his time

Sir. Vashistha Naryan Singh.

May your soul rest in peace in heaven and forgives us for ignoring the genius in you.

With Tears

Ajit Singh