John Nash: A beautiful mind

Returning from a lecture on Game Theory, Nobel laureate John Nash notices a group of people with orange scarves around their necks. ‘‘Those saffron scarves seem to be like a uniform,’’ he remarks. So, when one points out that these people might be members of a political party, one gets his attention. ‘‘You mean the BJ...,’’ he trails off, trying to remember the third letter.Yes, Indian politics seems to hold his interest.
‘‘The most interesting thing about the Congress is Sonia Gandhi,’’ he says. But when asked about his interest in contemporary India, Nash brushes off the question: ‘‘That’s just common reading of global news.’’
Nash is in the country to participate in India’s first international conference of the Game Theory Society. A mathematical genius whose 27-page dissertation Non-Cooperative Games was written in 1950 when he was 21, Nash was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. But mathematics and economics aren’t his only passions. At the venue of the lecture, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Nash’s attention is caught by a mural. TIFR director S Bhattacharya explains that it is the work of MF Husain depicting the history of India. And Nash asks, ‘‘So, where is Alexander?’’
Though in India for the first time, Nash is aware of the country’s history. While his own life has been picturised in A Beautiful Mind and has also been the subject of a book, Nash says both attempts aren’t accurate descriptions of his life.
In remission from paranoid schizophrenia, which he fell victim to in the 1950s, Nash is working on a three-player Game Theory wherein players have no knowledge of the strategy of others. His work could find application in multi-lateral negotiations. Meanwhile, John Nash’s life serves as an inspiration to the world at large.