West Bengal: Driver and tailor's son gifts parents HS 1st rank

KOLKATA: "We could be immortals" - if there was a success mantra for Suvranshu Sardar, it was this refrain from his favourite song 'Immortals' by American rock band Fall Out Boy. On Wednesday, the 18-year-old music lover topped the West Bengal Higher secondary examination with 99.2% (496/500).
A student of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya (Residential), Suvranshu's father is a goods vehicle driver and mother a home-maker, who occasionally stitches clothes to support the family. Suvranshu had no private tutors and depended entirely on his school teachers and the library. He didn't own a cellphone till classes went online during the pandemic and his mother bought one on EMI so that his studies didn't suffer. On Wednesday, the teenager gave his parents the biggest gift of their lives: a mark sheet that read economics (100), statistics (100), mathematics (100), computer science (98), English (98) and Bengali (90).
"This is beyond expectation. To secure the first rank, it feels surreal ," said Suvranshu.
'He asks for books even on birthdays and pujas'
Shampa Sardar, mother of HS topper Suvranshu Sardar, was speechless when she first heard the news. Living in a small room, underneath a staircase, she and her husband had left no stone unturned to support their meritorious son. "We don't have either a fixed income or savings. The pandemic was a difficult time for the family financially but we did not seek help or tell anyone about our limitations," she said. Tapas Sardar, Suvranshu's father, does not have fixed working hours and is a daily wager.
"Seeing his father work so hard motivated my son to work harder," said Shampa. The family hails from Sarangabad in Budge Budge
Suvranshu feels getting admission to Narendrapur RKM Vidyalaya in Class V changed his life - it helped him develop holistically. Shampa said she had faith in the school and was confident that the values instilled in him would help her son become a good human being. The teenager, who credits his parents and teachers for the success, said he wants to study economics and go for research in future.
Sandipan Maharaj, headmaster of the school, said Suvranshu "was a serious student, a bookworm and a music lover". He was even the lead singer of his school band, but what he loves most is to read books. "I like all kinds of books, fiction and non-fiction, but my favourites are novels," he said. Shampa said her son would always ask for books as gifts, even on birthdays and during Durga Puja. "His phone screen broke a few days ago but he told me that would like some books as gifts after the HS results were out," said the proud mother.