National topper wants to become a doctor

When the warden walked into her hostel room on Tuesday afternoon, Sreelakshmi G, a student of Bhavan’s Varuna Vidyalaya, Thrikkakara, had no clue that it was to deliver the message that she had emerged as one of the four national toppers in the just announced Central Board of Secondary Education’s Class X exam results.

Unable to reach her at the Chavara Public School in Pala, where she had enrolled for medical entrance coaching, her mother passed on the message to the warden.

“I went numb for a while as I wasn’t expecting it. I was confident of scoring high marks since the exams were pretty easy and direct. But not in my wildest of dream did I imagine that I will be among the toppers,” Sreelakshmi told The Hindu.

She was sceptical about English, as traditionally high marks are not awarded for the subject, and in Mathematics exam she had got an answer wrong. Her final tally of 499 marks proved her apprehensions partially true as she dropped just a mark in maths.

Sreelakshmi recollected that there was pressure over the reintroduction of board exam for Class X. “The teachers fulfilled their role to the hilt and it was just left to us to be diligent with our studies,” she said.

Born to Rema L.P., an assistant professor of Zoology and Controller of Examination at Maharaja’s College (Autonomous) here, and S. Gopinathan, senior government pleader, Sreelakshmi always marvelled at doctors and now aims at following in the same footsteps.

Asked about her daughter’s preparations for the exam, Ms. Rema said Sreelakshmi was a very diligent student who used to prepare her own multicoloured special notes.

Later in the evening, her parents brought their daughter back to the middle of celebrations at their home at Vennala here.