Vadodara: When most children of his age are learning to count, Arjun Vishal Prajapati is trying to understand why numbers never end. He also wonders what came before the Big Bang or what infinity minus infinity is, questions that leave most stumped.That insatiable curiosity has earned 4-year-old Arjun membership of Mensa, the world’s oldest IQ society, and another prestigious body, Intertel.Mensa admits only those who score in the top 2% on recognised intelligence tests, and Intertel, an even more exclusive society, generally accepts only those in the top 1%. Membership is based on rigorously supervised psychometric assessments rather than academic achievement, making dual qualification at the age of 4 an exceptionally rare accomplishment.Arjun secured a Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) score of 141 on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5), placing him in the 99.7th percentile. His Working Memory Index was 146 (above the 99.9th percentile), while his Nonverbal IQ measured 149 (above the 99.99th percentile).The assessment, conducted by licensed clinical psychologists in Canada, also qualified him for the Davidson Young Scholars programme for profoundly gifted children.Yet numbers tell only part of Arjun’s story.His parents say his fascination with learning surfaced long before he entered school. At just 18 months, he began reading independently, and by the age of 2, he was reading road signs, restaurant menus and maps.Mathematics is his favourite playground. While most children his age are learning to count, Arjun enjoys multiplication tables up to 20, numerical patterns and mathematical concepts usually taught around Grade 5. More than arriving at answers, he delights in understanding why numbers behave the way they do.His curiosity extends far beyond mathematics. He wants to know how oxygen travels through the human body, why even and odd numbers behave differently, and what lies behind concepts such as infinity, black holes and deep space.That curiosity has already taken him beyond the classroom. Arjun is enrolled in gifted education coursework through Northwestern University, where he studies cellular biology and human physiology.Away from academics, he enjoys football, basketball, swimming, yoga, painting, playing the piano and learning French and Spanish.His parents, Dr Vishal V. Prajapati, a physician from Vadodara, and Mahita, a lawyer educated at the National Law School of India who later earned an LLM in the United States, say they have consciously avoided placing academic pressure on their son.“We have never asked him to become something extraordinary,” Dr Prajapati said. “Our role has simply been to give him books, museums, conversations and opportunities to explore. Curiosity has always been his strongest teacher.”Arjun now dreams of becoming a physician-scientist, combining medicine with research. Until then, he continues to chase the questions that most people don’t think to ask.
