1 clears exam in Garib Nagar

His study notes were charred in the middle of his SSC exams and his hall ticket got misplaced, yet Zahid Ansari, 17, a resident of Bandra’s Garib Nagar slum, celebrated with a game of gully cricket on Friday.

His study notes were charred in the middle of his SSC exams and his hall ticket got misplaced, yet Zahid Ansari, 17, a resident of Bandra’s Garib Nagar slum, celebrated with a game of gully cricket on Friday.

HT Image

Scoring 40.73%, Ansari was the only Class 10 student in the fire-ravaged Bandra slum to clear the SSC exam on Friday. “I was expecting to score at least 50%,” he said, adding, “I don't know about any junior colleges yet. All I want is to bat like Sachin Tendulkar and play for the Indian cricket team.”

The five others from the slum who took the exams despite losing their books and notes in the massive fire on March 4, weren’t that lucky. Roshni Shah, 15, scored an aggregate of 50%, but failed in the math paper. “I had no books and guides to practice my math sums. I will study harder and take the re-exam in October,” said the student of Awami Urdu High School in Bandra.

Metres away from Shah’s home, Muhameed Sheikh, 49, couldn’t hold back her tears. She had found out that her fourth daughter, Gulab Asman Sheikh, 15, had failed, but was frightened to break the news to her. “She has always been the brightest of my eight children. She lost her notes and hall ticket a day before the Hindi paper,” said Muhameed, who works at a beedi factory to pay for her children’s fees and her husband’s hospital bills. “I have told her that she cleared the exam because I won’t be able to pay for the re-exam,” she said.