‘I WANT TO LEAVE RANCHI’

Anukul Anand, 17, a Class 12 student

ve lived here all my life. The streets are full of engineers, some quite successful, some not so much. They’re all looked at with respect and I want to be one of them.

Everyone knows it’s a struggle. I attend DAV Public School Bariatu from 7 am to 1 pm. After that I have mathematics coaching with a school teacher. Then physics with another coach. This is cheaper than enrolling in a big-name coaching centre. I have an easier schedule than my classmates who are in the 5-year-package.

I think I’d make a good engineer. I’ve been making simple machines since I was in Class 5 and my prototypes of simple robots have won local awards. I want to pursue robotics as a career, but it’s not something you can do in Ranchi, so getting into an IIT is the only way to get out.

I played football but I’ve stopped. I want to go to a gym and build a body like John Abraham’s, but there’s no time.

If I don’t clear the JEE-Main in the first attempt, I’ll have to join an expensive coaching class. For now, I watch video lectures by professors from coaching centres in Kota.

My father is an LIC agent, my mother is a homemaker. Neither understands what I want to do. My mum has never heard of robotics and worries that it will be difficult for me to find a wife. Since I am the only child, they want me to marry a girl from a good family.

I guess I’ll have to look for one in Delhi when I go to work there as an engineer.