A farmer’s son, who lives with his parents in a thatched hut in Balapur village,15km from Balurghat in South Dinajpur, hopes to get into an engineering college and secure “a government job”.

Banking on this hope Subhankar Burman risked his and his father Malin Burman’s safety in the middle of the pandemic to travel overnight on a bus to Calcutta from Balurghat to take the JEE (Main) exam.

“I want to get a government job… that would enable me to help my father financially,” Subhankar said after stepping out of the exam centre at TCS Gitobitan in Salt Lake.

Subhankar’s father waited outside for more than three hours in heat and rain while his son took the exam.

But waiting that long is not a tough call for the farmer who works for eight to 12 hours on the field, at times without a break.

“I have never seen him complain. But I can see the hard work he puts in for me day after day,” Subhankar said.

“When there is work we have to be on the field from dawn to afternoon. That has been my life for many years; but my son wants a different life and I want to support him,” Burman, a graduate, said.

Subhankar hopes to secure a “government job” as that will mean “more certainty”.

Chasing a life that will be more certain than the one he is leading now, the boy has never complained, even if it meant travelling during lockdown.

“We are thankful that we got a bus and it was not crowded. But yes, all seats were occupied and we had masks to keep ourselves safe,” he said.

Subhankar and his father started from Balurghat at 8pm on Aug-ust 31 and reached Dunlop on the city’s northern outskirt the next morning.

The two are staying at a relative’s place in Dunlop, an option that helped them travel over 400km “in pursuit of a better life”.

They will stay at Dunlop for a few more days because Subhankar will take the National Defence Academy exam, scheduled for Sunday.

“I could opt for both the exams… and it helped because we had a relative with whom we could stay in Calcutta,” he said.