Late Vashishtha Narayana’s kin preserves his legacy

Born as child prodigy who later emerged as veteran mathematics wizard, late Dr Vashishtha Narayan Singh wrote several books, however, stored in congested bookshelves in a rented house, the invaluable documents may perish if they are not digitalised

Born as child prodigy who later emerged as veteran mathematics wizard, late Dr Vashishtha Narayan Singh wrote several books, however, stored in congested bookshelves in a rented house, the invaluable documents may perish if they are not digitalised.

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To preserve the mathematician’s legacy, his kin Mukesh Singh has turned one room of ‘Shukriya Vashishta’ organisation into a library by collecting his possessions to keep his memory alive.

“Despite his achievements and exemplary contribution in the field of mathematics, the country and the state has failed to give him due recognition,” rued Singh.

“After uncle’s demise, we had to vacate his rented flat located in Kulhariya Complex. Initially, we had planned to shift his possessions to our ancestral home in Bhojpur but later we went ahead with the idea of creating a library,” Singh said.

“He has left a great treasure behind in the form of collection of voluminous foreign books, study materials, handwritten notes, thesis. We possess his document in which he challenged Einstein’s theory besides 50 other theses and precious documents,” he shared.

“We want to make his possessions free for public so that students, researchers and scholars can use them. We have 12 boxes containing more than 5,000 books which he brought from abroad, but we don’t have enough space to display it. His handwritten notes on loose sheets are tied in bundles. I wish to laminate and digitalise them for preservation, but I don’t have required resources and financial support,” he added.

“The motive of my life is to protect his legacy and fight for his due recognition,” said Singh, who quit his job as nodal officer with health department in 2015 to look after his family.

Singh had founded the Dr Vashishtha Narayana Singh Education, Research and Social Development Trust in 2016 and runs ‘Shukriya Vashishtha’ coaching classes, free for engineering aspirants of underprivileged class.

“Every year, we select 40 meritorious students based on a test and the students are given free classes. State’s prominent personalities like IPS Vikas Vaibhav, former DM Kumar Ravi, veteran mathematicians KC Sinha have also taken a few classes. A total of 18 students appeared in JEE exam held in February and March and all of them have qualified,” he shared.

“I am appealing the state government and public to extend their support in preserving his heritage for the coming generations,” he said.

Veteran mathematician

Born in Bhojpur district on April 2,1942, Dr Vashishtha Narayan Singh completed his schooling from Netarhat School and joined Patna Science College for graduation. He earned PhD in mathematics from University of California, Berkeley by the age of 23. He is also said to have challenged Einstein’s theory of relativity. After suffering from schizophrenia for 40 years, he died in Patna in November 2019.

He was posthumously awarded prestigious Padma Shri in 2020.