As the joint third-ranked student nationally in the Indian Council of Secondary Education’s Class X examinations with 99.4 per cent marks, Meghamala Bandyopadhyay was eligible to attend the chief minister’s felicitation programme for Board toppers on September 5. But she gave it a miss. “I had school,” she responds, simply.
There had been no major celebration in the Bandyopadhyay household in BF Block even after the results were out as classes had started at full tilt. Meghamala is studying science at the same school.
Difficult times
When the lockdown was declared in March 2020, Meghamala had just appeared for her Class VIII examinations. “It was very difficult initially to focus for hours of continuous online classes,” she says. But things fell into a rhythm eventually. For the next couple of years, on the days she had school, from 8.30am to 2pm, she would study for four hours in the evening. On holidays, she would study for seven hours.
Staying home all day to study was also a tedious experience for a single child. But she had her violin and piano for company, other than story books. “I used to take violin lessons in FD Block ever since I was in Class IV. The piano I have learnt to play on my own,” says the fan of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .
Meghamala Bandyopadhyay being felicitated by the BF Block residents’ association. Debasmita Bhattacharya
New format
It was very helpful to get to sit for the pre-Board examination offline, she points out. With the Board exam divided into two halves, another first was the multiple choice question (MCQ) format that they had to tackle in the first semester that took place in November.
Contrary to common perception, she says the MCQ format requires more in-depth study. Her first semester marks came to around 99.04 per cent. “I did not expect to do even
better in the second semester,” she admits, smiling.
She feels her batch was luckier than their immediate predecessors. “They faced so much uncertainty, with multiple postponements, and finally they did not even get to take the Boards!”
Looking back, she feels the pandemic period has taught her a lesson. “It has made me stronger. Even if something similar happens in the future, though I hope it will not, I will be prepared to face it.”
Literary descent
Now her focus is a career in physics. “It is my favourite subject, along with mathematics,” she says. No literary ambitions, therefore, for the girl who happens to be the great-granddaughter of Manik Bandyopadhyay, one of the great authors of modern Bengali literature. The books she recently finished reading are Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goldfinch and Nadia Hashimi’s Sparks like Stars. “I will read his (Manik Bandyopadhyay) work when I grow up,” says the 16-year-old who has Bengali as second language in school.
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Mark sheet
English 97
Mathematics 100
Science 100
History-geography 100
Computer science 100
Total 99.4%