| Rahul Mehta (12) |
| 7th grade student, JNV Patiala |
"Rural kids shine at Navodaya Vidayalayas"
Rahul Mehta (12) looks like a normal school kid except that his family background will make a sociologist very interested. This seventh-class student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Patiala (Punjab), who comes across as intelligent and sincere, belongs to a family that most Indians never associate with the ones whose boys go on to become IAS officers. (That's what Rahul wants to become.) Rahul's father runs a fruit juice stall and mother is a housewife. One of his two brothers studies in a government-run local school and the other works as 'compounder' in a doctor's clinic in a semi-urban area in Zirakpur (Punjab). Rahul, however, has the heart and mind to remain focussed on his studies. In sixth class - his first year at JNV-Patiala - he secured 95.3 per cent marks in aggregate. His scores in both science and maths: 100 per cent.
