Keshav Maheshwari's story is no different from an average NEET aspirant's. He is 19, lives with his extended joint family in a village called Madhpur in Bihar. "The family consists of people of all age groups," he says.

He echoes the same worries that most of the NEET aspirants with whom I've spoken to in the past months. "I can survive the virus even if I contract it. But what if I pass it on to the elders in the family?" he asks. This mere thought was what motivated him to file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the entrance examination's postponement.

"Honestly, I was not quite hopeful this time," he admits. There are reasons. A previous petition that sought the postponement of JEE and NEET was dismissed by the top court. A review petition on the same, filed by state ministers too was dismissed. Keshav's was the third petition in the past few weeks that was heard by the Supreme Court on the same matter. "They (Supreme Court) even dismissed the ministers' plea. If their voices are not heard, what hope does a common man like I have?" he asks.

Keshav remembers how he missed the enrollment for MBBS in a government medical college in 2019 for a difference of 15 marks. "I didn't lose hope. I studied hard every day for the past year. I am well prepared academically. But I am scared," he says. "SOPs weren't followed well in a lot of centres during the JEE, despite that being held in various shifts across six days. NEET, on the other hand, has only one shift and is held only on September 13. This escalates my worry," he says.