It figures; John Nash has a beautiful mind

Returning from a lecture on Game Theory at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Nobel laureate John Nash notices a group of people with orange scarves around their necks. He remarks, "Those saffron scarves seem to be like a uniform." So when one points out that those could be members of a political party, you''ve got his attention. "You mean the BJ...," he trails off, trying to remember the third letter.Indian politics seem to hold Nash''s interest. "The most interesting thing about the Congress is Sonia Gandhi," he remarks. When questioned about his interest in what''s happening in contemporary India, Nash brushes it off, saying, "That''s just common reading of global news."
Nash is in the city to participate in India''s first international conference of the Game Theory Society to be held on January 8 and 9 at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Nash, a mathematical genius whose 27-page dissertation Non-Cooperative Games, written in 1950 when he was 21, was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.
But mathematics and economics aren''t his only passion. At TIFR, he notices the large number of paintings. His attention is caught by a large mural. And so when Professor S Bhattacharya, TIFR director, explains that it is the work of M F Husain depicting the history of India, Nash asks, "So where is Alexander?"
Nash, though in India for the first time, seems to be aware of the country''s history too. While Nash''s life has been picturised into a movie A Beautiful Mind and also a book, he says these aren''t accurate descriptions of his life.
Though now in remission from paranoid schizophrenia, which he fell victim to in the late ''50s, Nash is now working on a three-player Game Theory where players don''t have knowledge of others'' strategy or moves and which could find application in multi-lateral negotiations.
For the seminar, special plenary sessions with Nobel laureates John Nash, Amartya Sen and Game Theorists like Robert Aumann, Lloyd Shapley, John Geanakoplos and Paul Klemperer, amongst others, will be held. Nash will speak on `Ideal Money and Asymptotically'' while Sen will discuss `Contemporary Significance of the Nash Bargaining Problem''.
khushnuma.d@timesgroup.com