Very few people know about Dr.Vasistha Narayan Singh, a world renowned mathematician and an ex-NASA scientist, who has been suffering from schizophrenia since 1976. The mathematician who challenged works of Great Scientist Albert Einstien.Coming from a very poor family, he is the record holder for Matriculation and Intermediate Science Exam. In mathematics conference he had presented a list of 5 most difficult problems. He solved all of them and that too in different ways. Prof Berkley got impressed and requested him to come to USA for further study. Singh did not let down HOD and did his PhD with style and went on to work for NASA. He had nationalistic dreams and thought of doing his India proud rather that stay on in US as his HOD and NASA wanted him to do.He married to an army officer's daughter. Due to reasons unknown, marriage did not work out and his wife left him and never come back. This left him heartbroken and made his condition worse.He returned to India and worked at ISI Cal, IIT Kanpur and TIFR Mumbai. He had a tough time at ISI Cal and was disillusioned at other places also.Soon after that, He lost his mental balance and was admitted to Mental Hospital, Kanke, Ranchi. Mental Authority threw him out of Kanke and his family did not have enough money to support his treatment which made his condition worst. He was treated by NIMHANS but details are not available. It appears that he fled from Merut Mental Hospital and was untraceable for many years until someone from his village saw him as a rag picker in Chapra. Relatives were happy to see him alive but were sad to see his misery.Dr Singh was in Patna (April 2004) to take part in a function organized in his honor by an institute run in his name. Singh looked ruffled, probably unable to catch the lavish praises that were hurled upon him by the speakers present on the occasion. At times, he gave the most loving smile, like a child. However, he looked distracted most of the time, probably lost in his world where there is no scope of anything except maths. He did not seem interested even when his biography was released by former VC.His love for maths was more than visible, even now, when he is said to be mentally challenged. Even while coming to Patna, he had not forgotten to carry with himself his prized possessions (maths books, diaries filled with mathematical theories and formulae etc). He had tied all this in a neat heap and occasionally looking at it.Once when the mike was given to him to say something, he spoke indecipherable words about some mathematical topic. But his sensitivity did not appear lost.Recently, the Bihar government has sent him to New Delhi for treatment (April 2009).John Nash (brilliant mathematician and noble prize winner whose story was portrayed in the movie A Beautiful Mind) made a recovery from the schizophrenia from which he had suffered since 1959 but Dr Singh did not. Why?Some factors supporting recovery in case of Nash could be beneficial to Dr Singh’s case.The relationships Nash had with fellow mathematicians were essential to his eventual recovery, but the single most important factor in Nash's recovery was the bond with his remarkable wife, Alicia. She fed, housed and cared for him even after she divorced him, and never wavered in her devotion to him or her belief in his extraordinary talent.In Nash's case, the Princeton campus functioned as a therapeutic community. His bizarre behavior was mostly tolerated, and he was granted access to lecture halls and libraries and offered human contact without being forced to make it. As his schizophrenia receded, Nash participated in seminars and made friends with a few graduate students. Later he was given unrestricted access to a computer, which he taught himself to use, and began writing intricate programs. A reluctance to give up -- or to accept a prognosis of doom -- can be seen in Nash's story.courtsey
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