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- PATNA, India - A child prodigy from India's least literate state is
still four months short of his 12th birthday, but he has big ambitions.
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- "I want to become the youngest Master's
degree holder in the world," said Tathagat Avtar Tulsi from eastern
Bihar state.
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- It will not be long before the short,
stocky and introverted child prodigy has the degree. Bihar's Patna University
has allowed him to take the masters examination for physics in July, university
officials said on Monday.
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- "A three-member committee of physics
teachers from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University found the boy suitable,"
said Patna University vice-chancellor Nazar Ahsan.
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- But it took some convincing before the
wunderkind got permission to take the examination. Tulsi had to appeal
to the university chancellor and the state's governor before the initially
reluctant officials agreed.
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- "I have completed the two-year M.Sc.
(master of science) course in eight months and (should) be given a chance
to appear in the examination," Tathgat said in an appeal to the chancellor.
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- The whiz kid is really on a roll.
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- In December last year, he became the
world's youngest university graduate at 11 years and two months, beating
a record held by Britain's Sittam Pal, who graduated at the age of 11 years
and eight months.
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- But it hasn't been easy.
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- Tulsi had to get the judiciary's help
to appear for the university examinations, and it took the intervention
of a Delhi court before he was allowed to take his high school examination
last year when school authorities were uncompromising.
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- A Patna court's intervention also was
needed before he could compete a three-part graduation examination after
university authorities allowed him access to only one part of the test.
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- Tulsi has authored a technical paper
titled "Electrogravity Unification and Energy Loss Phenomenon"
for which the Indian government granted a copyright in December 1997.
- The Times Of India Published
12/22/98
6-3-99
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- If child prodigy Tathagat Avatar Tulsi ever wins the
Nobel prize, which he aspires to, it will be all because of his father,
Tulsi Narayan Prasad, who ``programmed the birth of this genius''.
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- ``I programmed his birth,'' Mr Prasad said of his son
Tathagat, who figures in the Guinness Book of Records for clearing school.
He has now finished B.Sc., too.
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- Mr Prasad believes his headline-making son is the product
of a procreation method he has pioneered and is now offering to clients
who want a baby of predetermined gender and intelligence.
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- A diminutive former teacher of ancient history and archaeology,
Mr Prasad says he hit upon this method in 1972 and faced with determined
sceptics around him, he decided to try it on himself.
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- The theory draws from ``astro- sciences, genetic sciences
and the
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- ancient Indian textbook on sex, Kamasutra.'' It's about
right mood, right diet, right planetary positions and, he said, the right
``receptor''.
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- After conceptualising the theory, Mr Prasad said he began
by looking for the right ``receptor.'' And found her in a Bihar village,
Nisanpur, which has a high density of women -- ``three or four females
for every male.''
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- The history professor tied the knot in 1978. And thus
began the first trial of his theory. But there were several things wrong
with the ``receptor.'' She was a non-vegetarian, who like the others of
her village loved fish.
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- ``It wouldn't have worked,'' said Mr Prasad; diet is
important in his scheme of things. So, he began working on her to turn
vegetarian. Her family objected, so he sought police help to bring his
wife home.
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- And then began the experiments. ``I told my friends our
first child
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- will be a son,'' he said, adding, ``they laughed.'' On
January 17, 1983, the pioneer delivered to the world the first proof of
his theory, a son.
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- When his detractors declared this a fluke, he offered
a repeat. The second son was born a year later, January 18, 1984. Mr Prasad
then started on his most ambitious project yet -- to produce a genius.
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- Tathagat, crowning glory of Mr Prasad's experiments with
himself, was born on September 9, 1987. And the first indications that
the baby was special came from the ``clockwise whirls on all his ten fingers.''
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- The prodigy, is more than just a product of Mr Prasad's
experiments. The latter believes the child is an ``avatar'' (reincarnation)
of Buddha, who was also called the Tathagat. And, Avatar is the boy's middle
name.
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- And from where do you think the prodigy has got his surname?
From his programmer, of course: The father has in the best tradition of
great artists signed his first name, Tulsi, on his creation.
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- (See http://indianculture.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa122298.htm)
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