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