Netflix, books and choir singing: CBSE topper’s other areas of interest

A Netflix binge watcher, an avid reader and choir singer – that is Meghna Srivastava’s description of herself.

Srivastava, 17, scored 499 marks out of 500 to emerge as the national topper in the Central Board of Secondary Examination’s Class 12 board examination for which the results were declared on Saturday. With a score like that, one would have expected Srivastava to be devoted to her text books with no distractions whatsoever. She quickly dispelled that impression.

“I watch Netflix a lot, often continuously finishing all the seasons. I also like to read non-fiction books and my favourite author is Malcolm Gladwell. I am also part of the school choir team and although I have no formal training in singing, I also like to sing,” she said.

A student of humanities at Step by Step School in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi, Srivastava scored a perfect 100 in four subjects – History, Geography, Economics and Psychology – and 99 in English Core, averaging 99.8%.

She credited her success to her parents Gautam Srivastava and Alpana Srivastava and her teachers.

“My parents always supported me in whatever I did and they never pressurised me for studies. It is because of the moral support of my teachers and parents that I achieved such a feat,” said Srivastava.

Her father works as an assistant professor at Manav Rachna University and her mother works as human resources head at a multinational company in Gurgaon. She is their only child.

“All we did was to ensure that our house has a positive environment and our daughter gets the best resources for her studies. She is a consistent student and we never felt the need to ask her to study,” said Gautam Srivastava.

A teacher backs his assessment of her being a consistent student. “I was her class teacher and according to me, she is a perfectionist who believes in improving herself every day. She used to do her projects and homework twice and thrice,” said Kirti Tandon, an English teacher at Step by Step School.

This resident of Noida’s sector 93 also believes in community service. She was part of a team of volunteers that worked in the villages of Uttarakhand during the floods of 2014.

“I was part of a sanitation team of my school which visited two flood-hit villages and worked in them for days. The experience taught me a lot,” said Srivastava.

Srivastava intends to pursue a programme in psychology at an overseas institution.

“I have not decided on what I wish to become post my studies, but I wish to study psychology from a foreign university,” she said.