Local duo top state in ICSE

Arushi Bhaduri

School: DPS Newtown

Resident of: Thakdari, New Town

Ask Arushi Bhaduri what was written on the two cakes that her neighbours and her relatives got for her after her stupendous result in the ICSE examination and she replies candidly in stilted Bengali: “Ami toh kheye nilam.”

The girl, who speaks in Hindi at home with her Chandigarh-born mother and elder brother, says she was surprised at her result. “I did not expect so much. Over 90 per cent would have been enough. My brother had set me a challenge to cross his aggregate of 97.4 per cent. So I was working to exceed that. Anything more than that is a bonus,” smiles the resident of a housing complex near Aquatica.

Coming second in the country, falling just two marks short of the total, has not transported her to cloud nine. “The Board exams have got over almost two months ago. There is no time to dwell on that. Our classes have started,” she says, in a placid tone.

Rather, she gets animated in talking of her favourite TV series Star Wars that her father has introduced her to. “I have an R2D2 T-shirt. He has a Mandalorian one (a recent Star Wars spin-off TV series). I am trying to get my parents into Avatar: The Last Air Bender now,” she says, pointing out that she meant the animated TV series and not the film.

It needs to be pointed out that she did not have any tutor at home. “I did not need any as our school teachers are very good,” she said, speaking of the support she got from DPS Newtown. In fact, even now she is studying without extra support. “May be I will enrol somewhere just to sit for the mock tests,” she reflects.

Arushi says she loved all the science subjects. For a month, before the Boards, she studied for about six to seven hours daily. “In between, I would play the piano to relieve stress. I have been learning piano since 2014. In fact, I did so even while my Boards were under way.”

She has an electric piano at home and visits her teacher’s house sometimes to practise on his acoustic piano.

While she also plays badminton, she has been a part of the school athletics team at the CISCE National Games, taking the field for 800m sprint.

The girl, whose favourite composers are Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi, wants a career in research. “My goal is enrolling in Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, Calcutta or Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,” she says.

Sohan Ghoshal

School: DPS Newtown

Resident of: Narayanpur, Rajarhat

Sohan Ghoshal stands tall, not only in his academic feat but also in height. The very day after his Board exams got over, the 5.10ft boy left for foreign shores along with his mother Barnali. This was no vacation abroad but a half-yearly trip to join his father. “My husband works in Papua New Guinea. Sohan studied there till Class IV. I came back with him after that to take care of both sets of our parents,” says Barnali.

Mother and son are full of praise for the idyllic beauty of the Pacific islands, which is six hours away by flight from Singapore. “You get to see the mountains and the sea together,” they say. They returned on April 29, less than a week before the results came out on May 6. And since then, he has been flooded with congratulations.

“MLA Tapash Chatterjee, who stays less than a kilometre away, called us home and gifted Sohan a diamond ring and me a watch,” says the proud mother.

Sohan says he was tense as he was expecting to do well. “I expected to be in the top 5, so it was a big relief when that actually happened,” he said.

Getting two marks less than the total did not require long hours of studying. “I used to study a total of four to five hours. I could not retain my concentration for longer. And then there were tuitions to attend,” says the boy who attended classes at a coaching centre in Baguiati. “The only tutor I had taught me English online. It saved me time as he stays in Belgharia.”

The boy, who cannot choose between physics and mathematics as his favourite subject, is more excited to talk about his hobbies. He would disappear during study breaks with his Canon 1500D, going up to the roof to click the moon. Living close to the airport, in Rajarhat Narayanpur, also means he can capture flights in take-off or landing mode.

“Other than nature photography, I like painting landscapes in watercolour,” says Sohan, a Sherlock Holmes fan who is currently reading the Lord of the Rings series.

Ask him about future plans and he immediately mentions his aim to be a doctor, specifically a cardiologist. He took the decision at his grandmother’s bedside who needed an intervention for heart block.

For now, though, he is struggling to make up for his absence in the initial classes at DPS Newtown, where the session for Class XI started on April 15 when he was still away. Despite all the felicitation invitations coming his way, the bullseye he has set for himself is National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the medical education gateway.