We were shell-shocked when one of the two NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) toppers from Andhra Pradesh with an all-India rank of five, G Rushil, says he thinks he doesn't have a good memory. And admits the same quite sheepishly when we speak about his feat. But like every good student who knows where his weak points are, he would read line to line and particularly note down all those important points he was bound to forget. Don't even get us started on how many notes he has accumulated by now as the tall pile is now a testament to his meticulousness.
Hailing from Rajahmundry, Rushil had naturally wanted to be a doctor. We say naturally because both his parents are doctors. He would stare as they, duty-bound, would fly in and out of the house as and when required. This sparked in him a desire to serve society. "I've always been the helpful kind," he says sincerely. But the 17-year-old is not the one to sacrifice it all on the altar of hard work. "You can’t work hard while being miserable, you need to be as happy as you can be," says Rushil with a quiet maturity that is very becoming of him. So whenever he spotted despair lurking around the corner of his mind, he would chat with friends and that's all it would take to banish those blues. If that did not work, there was always PUBG and GTA.
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But even Rushil isn't without his vices, which he admits to candidly. "In my first year of preparation, I thought everything is important and literally, I read everything! Only later did I understand what it is that I really need to focus on," says the youngster who had ample help from Sri Chaitanya and the coaching they offered. He fell back upon trusty NCERT textbooks and previous year question papers to ensure that he was on top of his game.
Forget topping, attempting NEET amidst an ongoing pandemic is an achievement in itself. So what helped calm Rushil's nerves, we wonder? "It was my parents' words. They told me to stay calm and said that it did not matter what marks I scored," he recalls. That's why though he felt the jitters before stepping into the exam hall, once the papers were distributed it was as if only he and the question before him existed, he was living only in the 'now'. "I never for a moment thought about marks," he shares. And the 'now' Rushil is enjoying is quite momentous, isn’t it?
