Gujarat teen who topped Class 12 spurns education for enlightenment
A 99.9 percentile in Class 12 is a ticket to topflight colleges and a lucrative career.
For any 17-year-old from a middle-class family, it should be a dream come true. But Varshil Shah has chosen to tread a different path. He is ready to renounce the world to be a Jain monk.
The teenager from Ahmedabad in Gujarat will take diksha – a religious ceremony that marks the initiation of Jain monks and nuns — on June 8, his uncle, Nayanbhai Suthari, said on Tuesday.
The ceremony will take place in Gandhinagar.
Varshil was among the toppers when the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board announced the result on May 27. There were no raucous celebrations.
Varshil, whose family follows Jainism, shuns the limelight and keeps to himself. It was his uncle who spoke to Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
“The result is as per expectations, but to attain and maintain peace, I think renouncing the world is the only way,” his uncle quoted Shah as saying.
His mother Amiben Shah and father Jigarbhai, an income-tax official, are happy with the path chosen by their son.
Devout Jains, the couple have raised their two children – Varshil and his older sister Jainini – austerely.
CONTINUED ON P 8