Father recounts son’s journey To IIT Kharagpur.
by Farooq Shah
Mehran developed a fascination for folklore relating to other faiths and cultures from an early age. His bedtime stories were primarily heroic anecdotes that I would often read out to him from Arabian Nights, Mahabharata, Panchatantra and other fictional works. These stories may have given him a sense of heroism and guided him through his formative years.
One anecdote from the Mahabharata that stands out is about Arjuna, Dronacharya’s most accomplished student, who the guru said was the only one among his pupils who had the unwavering focus to use a bow and arrow to shoot the eye of a toy bird perched on a tree.
With the same focus, Mehran started his journey and attended a few local schools with the sole intention of studying Physics at an IIT. Last month, after passing the JEE Advanced Test with an outstanding all-India rank of 5891, he gained admission to the elite IIT Kharagpur.
As a father who has steadfast trust in science, I was aware that for Mehran to succeed in life, he would need to devote himself to his studies in an intelligent way while avoiding any distractions that would impede his progress toward a professional career.
Mehran began his education at an all-boys school, not far from our home, where learning about Islam was strictly required. He started displaying a peculiar behaviour, such as, refusing to shake hands with girls and it did set off alarm bells in my mind. He would sport a skullcap which I, quite frankly, disliked the most.
Sometimes, I would wonder aloud why on earth a school would place so much emphasis on religion. Mehran had to take a few additional subjects, including Arabic. I still trusted the school management thinking they knew what they were doing. I was wrong.
One day, on his return from the school, Mehran started talking about Islamic battles. He asked me why the Israelis attacked the Palestinians. I was perplexed by Mehran’s inquiries about the Taliban and ISIS at such a tender age. It quickly struck me that I had made a grave mistake in choosing the school for Mehran. Not because I didn’t know the answers to his questions or that they were irrelevant, but because, given Mehran’s young age, they were wholly inappropriate with far-reaching effects.
Instead of trying to stop Mehran from asking questions or being curious, I responded to him in the most reasoned way possible, which helped to calm him down: “Son, the Prophet of Islam declared his prophethood when he was forty years old, even though he could have done so earlier. There is a proper time to ask such questions.”
However, I didn’t stop right there. I went to his school the next morning and asked the management to prepare his discharge certificate so that I could find him a new school.
Because Mehran was an excellent student loved by the teachers, the perplexed administration had no idea why I would remove him from the school. My reply: “I am not comfortable with how you teach religion to kids at such a young age.” After a little bit of argument, I got the discharge certificate.
Mehran’s new school was no different but being coed, certain benefits came soon – getting rid of his skullcap being the notable one. I had no issues with the continuous, albeit more moderate, teaching of Islam. Mehran thought the new school was a little more interesting because it supported and offered musical programmes along with encouraging art and painting.
One day, Mehran asked if I could buy him a guitar. For a father who himself wanted one in his childhood but couldn’t get it, the decision to buy him one was immediate. He quickly learned how to play the instrument using YouTube as his tutor and discovered it to be a wonderful stress reliever, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when the world was shut down.
By the time Mehran passed his grade-10 board examination, he had transformed into a tall, happy young man who was prepared to face the challenges of life head-on. By this point, he had made up his mind regarding his professional path and his field of study. His desire to secure a berth at an IIT was stronger than ever because he had focused on Physics from a very young age.
The Covid-19 pandemic had already taken the world in its grip by the time Mehran finished his higher secondary (I) exams. While Covid-19 closed down everything, Mehran’s resolve to study – all by himself – had just begun.
He saw the pandemic as a godsend to create his own world with few, if any, outside influences and distractions. He continued to study late into the night.
Mehran’s perseverance and hard work paid off when he qualified the JEE MAIN test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, followed by another MAIN test in which he improved upon his previous percentile of 99.24 with 99.44 qualifying for the advanced test. A month later, he cracked the JEE Advanced securing a national rank of 5891, thus securing a berth at the prestigious IIT Kharagpur.
The atmosphere in which Mehran was raised was essential to his success, even though he deserves all the credit for his unwavering perseverance and hard work. Because I believed in internalizing the discipline rather than imposing it, I offered Mehran a great leeway without that regimental supervision and he, thankfully, accepted it and never misapplied it.
Farooq Shah works as Media Communication Officer for the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), J&K.
