Vashistha Narayan Singh, is man who challenged the Einstein theory(e=mc2). He was a great mathematician born in Bihar on 2^nd of April,1942 in Basantpur village of Bhojpur District. Since childhood he was a brilliant student at Mathematics.

 When he was in the 5^th standard he used to solve the problem of 11^th standard and when he reached to 11^th standard he was already dealing with Bachelors Degree papers. After completing his matriculation, he went to Patna and got enrolled in Patna Science College in 1961.

While when he was studying in the college he always got annoyed whenever the teacher  taught wrong and was sent to principal when he objected. One day when he was sent to principal, the principal  gave him some tough questions to solve, he solved them with numerous method and left everyone in shock.

He did his PHD when he was 19 years old and it is a record itself, and for that Patna University was made to change its rules. During the first year of BSc Mathematics he was allowed to appear in the final exam in which he topped. And when he went to do MSc first year, again he was allowed to appear in MSc final exam in which he topped again.

When he was studying in Patna Science College he was noticed by John L. Kelly, a professor at the University of California. After seeing the potential of Vashishatha Narayan, he invited him to come to America for further studies but because of financial problems he couldn’t afford to go to America and he declined.

Later on, Prof. Kelly made all the arrangement for V.Narayan and took him to America. After receiving his PhD from University of California, he worked for NASA from 1969-1972. It is said that at the time of Apollo mission NASA’s  30 computers were shut down and at that time V. Narayan made the calculation on his fingers and when the computers got fixed up then it was found that his calculations were right. After working in NASA he returned to India.

In early 1970s he started suffering from a mental illness known as Schizophrenia. According to his brother Ayodhaya Singh, he become very much depressed when his work and researches were misappropriated by some other people for their own profit. In an interview his brother said that when V.Narayan came from America since then he behaved in an  abnormal way . In 1988 he left his home without any information to anyone. In 1992, he was found in Siwan, Bihar in a very poor condition. He is now about 77 years old.

It is very sad that such a genius mathematician and scientist is still unrecognized by the people of our country and by the government. When he started suffering from the mental illness, the time when he needed help and support, he got divorced and even the government didn’t show up to help him.

——— author———-

Akash Francis

  Bihar