After a stressful few weeks, both MBBS aspirants and their parents at Friday's counselling had beaming faces as they left with their allotment forms - and it had very little to do with the fact that the nation was celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi, and a long weekend to boot. A total of 1209 students were called on the first day of the general counselling.
Like previously predicted by many activists, many of the top ranks were bagged by CBSE students and most State board students who had gotten a high rank managed it after taking a one year or two year break.
One such student was N S Divyashree, from Theni who managed to get a seat at the Madras Medical College. When she wasn't able to crack the exam last year, she decided to take a gap year. Her father Srinivasan N said, "She was bent on doing medicine and the Supreme Court order also said that NEET would be mandatory from the following year, so we decided to let her take the year off."
Divyashree's family spent a lakh on tuition and hostel fees for a year's coaching in Tiruchy. "There was some tension when the State government started to say that there won't be NEET but I trusted the SC's judgment last year. I'm glad we have NEET, that way some students have the chance to repeatedly try to get into medicine. Without NEET, students don't get a second chance to apply," the 18-year old said. Divyashree hopes to pursue Opthomology, a wish she has nursed since she was little.
Ponvijayaraja P, a State board student from Tindivanam also managed to get in after his second attempt at the exam. "I told my parents that I only want to be a doctor and nothing else so they allowed me to take two years off and study. I went to two different coaching centre for each year and came fully prepared. Thankfully it all worked out," he explained. Ponvijayaraja want to pursue research in Neuoscience after his MBBS at Madras Medical College.
A few State Board students like Sooraj S from Rajapalayam did managed to bag a seat, albeit with the aid of coaching classes. "I went for a month's coaching and then attempted the exam. It went well so there was an immediate sense of relief when the judgement came in," he said.
'Not all CBSE students are rich'
Some of the students were a little bitter over all the NEET confusion claiming that the continuous stress over rural students getting affected by NEET wasn't entirely true because they themselves were from either rural backgrounds or low income families.
CBSE student Ranganathan S, 19, from Coonoor managed to secure the 139th rank after his second attempt. His father, a daily-wage earner is beyond happy, "My father makes only about 60,000 a year, he is a 'coolie', we are also from extremely difficult background. They (NEET protestors) kept on saying poor and rural students were affected by what about people like me?"
Due to the repeated back and forth decisions of the government, Ranganathan's father Subramani said he couldn't even concentrate on work and stayed back many times out of worry for his son's future. But now after finally getting admitted in a government college, both father and son are happy. The teenager said he wanted to pursue neurosurgery as a speciality and his father says his son get do whatever he may like, "It's his life after all."
