Triplets strive to excel in PU exams

Mangaluru: These triple bundles of joy – two boys and girls – who gave homemaker Shanti D’Souza and her husband contractor Godwin Peter D’Souza nearly five years of sleepless nights as children, are doing the same all over again as teenagers. The latest bout of anxiety from Prasad, Prawan and Prajwitha, second-year PU students of St Aloysius PU College, stems from the fact they are appearing for the commerce exam at a centre in Attavar.
Born on February 23, 2001, the triplets joined the PU commerce course with the combination of computer science, economics, business and accounts as subjects. The fact they are triplets dawned on their classmates and lecturers when their mid-term exam approached. While some suspected the boys were twins, the fact the siblings were triplets became clear when they wrote their parents name on a college application.

While they study independently, they are together for practical subjects and assignments. As usual, Prajwitha scores more than her twin-siblings! Prajwitha says, “We listen to lectures and complete home work on daily basis. It’s only during exams that we put in extra hours and sum up what we have studied thoroughly”. Prasad and Prawan add, “All three of us are good at sports. The two of us are into powerlifting and have won gold and silver at a state level competition.”

Prajwitha has represented her college in throwball. “Every day we practice our sport for three hours and for an hour during exams,” she says. On how their similarity caused trouble for the other, Prasad says a lecturer scolded him for Prawan’s mistake. During a prayer service, the parish priest told Prawan, “Why have you come back again?” Even Peter and Shanti had their anxious and tense moment when they came to know they were to have triplets.

“But it’s God’s gift. All couples can’t have triplets. As children they gave us sleepless nights, but we have full satisfaction. We have an elder son – Joseph Prashwin—who is pursuing engineering,” Shanti says. Rev Fr Melwin Mendonca, principal, St Aloysius PU College, says, “All three are well behaved and disciplined. They share a special bond of friendship. While Prajwitha excels in studies, Prasad, Prawan do so in sports and extra-curricular activities”.