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Journalism of Courage
Rachit Aggarwal from Jalandhar of Punjab, is among the 100 NTA scorers in JEE Main as per the results declared Wednesday late. He feels that motivation to succeed can come from little things and in unexpected ways.
For the 18-year-old Aggarwal, who never had any plans to pursue engineering and rather never wanted to “study too much” till class 10, the motivation also came from Japanese animated series “Dragon ball Z” and its protagonist Goku who “defends the Earth again Evil.”
And of course, his elder brother Saksham Aggarwal, pursuing computer engineering from BITS Pilani.
“Motivation has to be found from small, little things. It can be anything. I used to watch “Dragon Ball Z” a lot till class 10. I was never that 24×7 bookworm student and had no plans to pursue engineering,” says Aggarwal, who also loves creative writing, enjoys poetry and plays guitar. He is also an avid fan of Harry Potter series.
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“Till class 10, my attitude towards academics was that I won’t go for non-medical in Class 11 and 12 but my brother motivated me. I was never studious,” says Aggarwal, who took coaching from Aakash Institute.
His father Neeraj Aggarwal owns tiles and sanitary ware business while mother Ritu Aggarwal gives home tuitions.
In a message for those who want to make it to IITs but fear mathematics and physics, he says: “Students often develop deep fears in their hearts listening to words like maths and physics but honesty, no one knows these subjects before you really start. It’s about having a blind faith on your own self that yes I can do it and have to do it. Once that andha vishwaas (blind faith) comes, it all starts making sense.”
“Living in a joint family with grandparents also helped me a lot. There was always someone from the family to push me whenever I would feel low. Whenever I would study, someone would come and switch off the television,” he says.
Preparing for JEE Advanced, he now wants to pursue computer science engineering from IIT Bombay.
Aggarwal says that it’s all about self-control when it comes to using social media while preparing for the competitive exams.
“Soon I realised I had little self-control over using social media so I deleted my Instagram, Snapchat accounts and started studying for 10-12 hours a day. Initially it’s tough but once you develop interest, it only improves and concepts become clearer,” he says.
Aggarwal says he was never a 100 or 99 percent scorer or a topper in class 10. “I had scored 94 per cent in class 10 which is like very normal these days. Along with competitive exams, one must focus on NCERT syllabus too as it is the foundation,” he says.
When not studying, Aggarwal loves swimming, listening music, surfing YouTube, doing yoga and walking.
