Tales of examinees’ courage behind NEET ‘success’ story

Tales of examinees’ courage behind NEET ‘success’ story

Tamaghna Banerjee & Mayukh Sengupta

14.09.2020

A girl from Murshidabad spent the better part of Saturday night on a Salt Lake road after travelling 200km from home; a boy from Malda came to Kolkata three days early to beat lockdown; a boy from Behrampore fell unconscious at the centre after an arduous journey, and wrote the exam from a wheelchair; a girl from Nepal stayed 14 days in quarantine at a relative’s home before appearing for the exam in Salt Lake.

They could still take the exam; there were a few who could not, even after trying their best.

As lakhs of aspiring doctors took NEET on Sunday, out poured tales of grit and courage from examinees, who crossed boundaries of district, state and even country — not to mention walls of fear and uncertainty — all in order to take this one exam.

Beldanga resident Noor Jahan Khatun and her father, a bidi worker, had booked a guest house in Salt Lake, hoping to check in on Saturday and reach the exam venue on time. But when they reached Salt Lake on Saturday evening, they were told their booking was not confirmed and asked to leave. Not knowing much of Salt Lake, father and daughter sat on the footpath near tank No.7, preparing to spend the night on the road as the latter started revising under the street lights.

It was sheer luck that a good Samaritan spotted them some hours later, and helped them check into another guest house. “Had it not been for that person, I don’t know whether I would have been mentally fit to take the exam,” said the girl.

With Saturday’s lockdown revoked only on Thursday, many examinees and their parents had already started from their homes in different districts and states on Wednesday to reach the city on Thursday, staying at hotels and guest houses around the exam venues.

85-90% attendance in NEET-UG: NTA

Attendance for the NEETUG on Sunday was between 85% and 90%, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced, based on random sampling. Those who missed the exams after testing positive for Covid will get another chance to take the test. P 9

Students pay ₹40k to book bus from Malda to city

Sohail Rana, who was appearing for the exam at Apeejay School, Park Street, said: “It was only after we reached the city on Thursday that we came to know that Saturday’s lockdown was revoked. Had we known earlier, we could have saved the money spent on hotel stay. We would have started on Saturday itself.”

Several from faraway districts said they had to face a harrowing time arranging for transport. A group of examinees who were appearing from a venue in Howrah, said they had to shell out Rs 40,000 to book a bus from Malda to reach the city. “There were around 20 of us who hired the bus. We started early on Saturday and reached on Saturday night. We had to pay Rs 40,000,” said an examinee. Another examinee from Malda, Sneha Das, said she had to pay Rs 13,000 to hire a car to her centre on Park Street.

Behrampore’s Bikram Nandi fell sick during the journey and collapsed upon reaching his Kasba venue. But he managed to write the exam from a wheelchair after he was medically cleared. “He didn’t want to miss the exam after making the effort to reach,” said his father Ranjit Nandi, who works at a private firm.

Queuing up outside the Haryana Vidyamandir exam venue was also Avantika Malik from Nepal, who came out of her 14-day home quarantine only on Friday. “We had started from Kathmandu on August 28 morning in a car with Covid-negative certificates and took a train from New Jalpaiguri the same night to reach Kolkata on August 29. Since then we were in home quarantine at a relative’s house on Zakaria Street,” said Malik, who was accompanied by her father.

But, for some students like Darbhanga resident Santosh Kr Yadav, the 600km distance proved too much to cover as he missed the exam by a mere 15 minutes. Yadav had boarded a bus from his hometown at 8am but was stuck between Muzaffarpur and Patna for close to 10 hours because of a traffic disruption, and could only reach Sealdah at1pm.

(With inputs from Amit Moulick)