This is more a collection of news stories through Google News than anything else, but anyhow.

Recently, it was reported that Saurabh Singh, a young boy from UP, had topped an "International Scientist Discovery" exam conducted by NASA. Naturally, people were amazed and overjoyed that a youth from India could do so well for himself, and the press definitely responded accordingly. Unfortunately, it has now been revealed that the whole thing appears to be a hoax. For starters, NASA don't have such an exam. Singh then claimed he went to Oxford to take the test (apparently, he told a Hindi newspaper he stayed at Buckingham palace while in London...but I doubt it). But then Oxford denied this too. Saurabh claimed that a certain V.K. Bansal, head of a maths training college, was the one who told him about the NASA exam, and flew with him to London. But V.K. Bansal has said he doesn't know Saurabh. Saurabh also says that Bansal has his suitcase, which has his passport among other things (he currently doesn't have any proof that he travelled to London).

I feel sorry for Saurabh, and I wonder whether he's just incredibly naive and didn't expect the story to get double-checked (how could it not!?). Maybe he just wanted to come off as a hero in his village?! Then again, he probably wouldn't have played along with the media reaction for so long. I'm surprised the media took so long to find out it was a fake - I would have thought someone would get suspicious when seeing he got 72% in the board exams. There is the possibility of course that he did take an exam, and travel somewhere, like he maintains, except that he got taken for a ride. It's possible that someone had fooled him into thinking he was going to join NASA. But the problem here is that it doesn't make sense; if Saurabh says that his flight was fully payed for by Bansal, that would mean that he didn't have to pay a thing. So what motive would there be for anyone to try and trick him!?

When the reports first came out, Singh said that AJ Kalam had also taken the exam, but had only managed 7th place. Considering the exam is fake, surely Kalam would have said something when the first reports came out? I believe Saurabh's current position is that he did meet Kalam, who congratulated him, and that the media's position is that this meeting was cancelled when the hoax reports started coming in. Even the latter is impossible, why would Kalam meet someone who claims that he (Kalam) did an exam that doesn't exist!? Ahh, it just makes no sense I tells ya! By the way, Saurabh says that he showed Kalam his certificate, which apparently misspells "Aeronautics" and gives the wrong name for the chief of NASA - but Saurabh says that this ex-chief has resigned, only that his resignation has not been accepted yet!!

Update: Oh my, you can have a look at the certificate here. I recommend trying to zoom in and read some of the text, it is mostly mystifying to think how this could ever be passed off as a legit, but at the same time very funny (if you abstract away the reality that this person may have been involved in a scam and got taken for a ride, or is involved in a malicious hoax, etc.). I love the arrow that emphasises "You are the member of NASA"..