At a time when varsity cut-offs have hit 100, @IndianExpress tracked down a generation of Board exam toppers between 1996 & 2015 to find out the consequences of a convention that celebrates a few students every yr. 

Our 3-part deep dive: Tracking India's Toppers 👨‍🎓🥇

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Each is a story of talent, effort & achievement. But taken together, the arcs of their lives & careers tell the story of a generation coming of age in a liberalised India. Of how some aspirations endure & some don’t; how some divides crumbled & some stay intractable.
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Over half the toppers (CBSE & CISCE) live overseas today, USA 🇺🇸 being the destination of choice.

Three of every four who are abroad are either working or pursuing higher education in USA. Others are in the UK, Australia, Singapore, China, Canada, Bangladesh and UAE
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Of those employed abroad, most work in the tech sector, followed by medicine and finance.

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A quarter of those working in the US are in Silicon Valley.

Like Rishabh Singh (34), who topped the CBSE Class 12 exam in 2004 and is now Research Scientist with Google X.

@Google is home to 11 toppers, the most in any one company!

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More than half the toppers (48 out of 86) chose engineering as their undergraduate degree -- only 12 did medicine.

Among those who studied engineering, 6 out of 10 did so at an IIT.

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Many, however, confess that an interest in engineering wasn't always the motivation behind the decision. They had internalised a societal norm (for those who did in school to study engineering) without questioning it.

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No wonder that over a quarter of the employed Board toppers, who studied engineering as their first degree, later switched tracks and are currently working in roles and sectors where their training in a core engineering branch is not directly useful.

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To be sure, none of the past toppers regrets her UG degree in engineering. However, many wish they had exposure to other professions or career counseling at that age.

In hindsight, Lekshmi V (29) feels she should have studied Commerce at UG level instead of engineering
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Of the total 86 toppers, only one belonged to the OBC category. None was Dalit or tribal, just 5 were first-generation college-goers -- all pointing to a connection between academic achievement and privilege.
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Here's the method (to the madness that played out over the last 4 months) 👇👇.

Honestly, it was much harder to locate former toppers than I imagined. Not everyone is on social media, it turns out.
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A big shoutout to the kind souls who helped me track down the toppers when everything failed.

** To the office bearer of a bank union in UP who tapped his network to help locate a retired employee who is the father of an ICSE national topper

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** To the kind lady attending phone calls at @harvardmed's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre. She went out of her way to connect a (desperate & tired) journalist from 🇮🇳 with a staff doctor, who I suspected was the same person as the1998 ISC topper.

And many more ❤️
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Here's the link to the first part of our deep dive: https://t.co/f4jBxQZaOy
We also have a double spread today listing out who's who -- and where 👇👇

Link: https://t.co/FjzNLAB6Sz
Also, do check out the second part tomorrow.

The Gender Gap: Toppers all, but why it's advantage men

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Series edited by the brilliant @umavishnu & @rajkamaljha!

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More from India

In his letters describing the India Mission, Carey has given us an insight into how the society functioned then, of how the minds of the people worked and what methods the missionaries used to approach and brainwash the common people.


It is entirely possible that,Carey in his arrogance of being the white man and hence more civilized,his inability to under the Hindu scriptures and his natural disdain for the learned community coupled with his inherent hatred for the idolaters may have exaggerated the incidents.

In fact, considering the venom with which he has spoken about Hinduism and it's practices, it's likely that he has exaggerated these incidents. But it cannot be denied that these incidents did happen even if they may not have been on scale at which Carey has described.

One of his journal entry mentions a debate which happened in a temple in front of around 200 people. Carey describes having debated with two learned men and goes on to say when both learned men failed to answer his questions, he went on to preach the gospel to the assembled crowd


In a letter dated 30th June,1795 he goes on to gleefully narate how Hindus were unaware of their own scriptures and how an supposed expert named a grammar book when he was questioned as which scripture said that the Murti is God.
"Busy Life Daily Puja & Neivedyas"

People would always have several doubts on what to offer bhagwan in their daily puja. For some it will be a million dollar question of how to do an express puja yet a satisfying one.


Upachara - "उपचार"

Refers to the offerings and services made to Bhagwan as part of worship. In shastras there are a count of upachara pujas we do.

पांच उपचार पूजा - 5 Upacharas
षोडशोपचार पूजा - 16 "
चतुःषष्ट्युपचार पूजा - 64 "

Out of these panch is used for daily puja.


Some use 16 upachras who are well versed with the way of doing it Effortlessly and have abhishekam at home daily. 64 is exclusively for festivals and special vrat. One can choose to do 5 upacharas daily and finish your puja peacefully.

How to start your Puja ?

1. Shudhikaran & Aachaman
2. Bhootashudhi & Pranayam
3. Sankalp
4. Choice of Upachara Puja
5. Aarti
6. Pradakshina
7. Mantra Pushpam
8. Bhoomi Sashtanga/Panchanga Namaskaram

Major pujas steps one should ideally follow

Shudhikaran & Aachaman

After bath and dressing with (washed clothes only) should arrange their requirements for puja.
Take water separately for Aachaman and Puja. Water shouldn't be used from same paatra ideally. Perform Aachaman as per your practice & for beginners - YouTube

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