Young Goa Gaurav Awasthi

Gaurav Awasthi SET PRIORITIES AND WORK CONSISTENTLY

Team Incredible Goa

For 18-year old Gaurav Awasthi, son of a retired officer of the Indian Navy, constantly being on the move, shuffling between schools has been ausual experience. Having studied in Navy schools in many cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, Gaurav moved to Goa just after his class ten.

After moving to the tiny coastal state, the obvious thing that the parents – father Navin and mother Suman – did, was to search for good schooling institutes in the state for their two children. Today, Gaurav Awasthi has marked his name across several records, after having equalled the highest BITSAT score achieved in Goa (426/450), and also attaining the best know JEE (Advanced) rank (AIR 1444) known in the state till date. Furthermore, he also topped all three – Physics, C h e m i s t r y a n d M a t h s examinations – at the Goa Common Entrance Test (GCET). For the young-lad, having a xed routine has never been a top p r e c e d e n c e , a s h e a l w a y s believed that setting one ' s priorities straight, and working towards it in a consistent way can help reach to the point one wants to. “I learnt that it is better not to have a xed routine, but you only need to get your priorities straight. And o n e s h o u l d d e n i t e l y n o t compromise on their sleep. That can impact your productivity for the rest of the day, hence, I try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep everyday.” Being an avid book reader since childhood, Gaurav has always inclined himself towards ction books. “I have been lucky enough t o h a v e g r e a t s c i e n c e teacherssince childhood. When you have a great teacher teaching the subject, you also tend to start liking it. So, they got me interested into science,” he says. It was in class nine that Gaurav decided he wanted to answer the JEE exams, and since then, there has been no turning back for this dedicated and hardworking boy. In Goa, Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School was the ideal c h o i c e , a s i t s c o n d u c i v e atmosphere, with its great focus on academics was the perfect combination Gaurav needed to pursue his dreams moving ahead. Gaurav recalls that the initial rst months at MushtifundAryaan for him were a bit different,as he spent more time guring out what his daily schedule would be like. “Firstly, at least for a couple of months, it was a bit different. I spent the initial month trying to gure out what my schedule would be, how many hours should I sleep, how do I plan to do the work and everything.” At a time when academics are dotted with extreme pressure due to various societal and other reasons, nding the right balance in order to be mentally t to chase your dreams is also equally important. For Gaurav, relaxation was probably the most important thing that kept him going, coupled with short breaks in between study sessions. “I think relaxation is the most i m p o r t a n t p a r t o f k e e p i n g mentally t. During the initial few months of higher secondary, I thought I would ignore that, but it didn't work out well. Then, I kept taking short breaks. Even at home, I would study for a few hours, and then take a break; walk around the house, listen to music, go for a walk, play some board games with my sister,” he says. Going with the ow has always been a constant mantra for him, as being strongly focussed on his dreams, he was well aware which path he wanted to head into. “Go with the ow. If you don't feel like studying for that day, don't study. Don't force yourself to do something that your mind doesn't want to. Take a break and refresh yourself, and later come back to it,” he says. Staying in Caranzalem area, the 15-minute journey to school was always spent by him listening to music and enjoying the company of friends. In school, paying attention to academics was his stop priority, as he believes that if one does that, 75% of the work is d o n e . “ I f y o u j u s t t r y a n d understand what is taught in school, and take necessary notes wherever needed, the work becomes a lot easy,” he says. With more focus on academics over the last two years, Gaurav says he's denitely become a more indoor person as he has had to tone down a lot on outdoor activities. Having achieved remarkable scores in all his entrance exams, Gaurav ' s has a rather unique philosophy that he believed in. “My whole philosophy is hard work can get you to a point, the rest, luck certainly plays a role. There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong (w.r.t entrance exams answered), but luck played its role. We can get to a point, after that it's a l l l u c k , ” h e s a y s .

“If you're doing something, I think you should denitely try to do the best you can. But, coming rst also depends on other factors. You can never just say I am going to come rst, but you got to work with that aim in mind, and do justice to all the efforts put in by the teachers also. Parents also are very

emotionally vested in all this. I denitely wanted to do the best I could. I' m happy with the way things turned out.” Currently, with an All India Rank of 1444 in JEE Advanced (best known in Goa till date), Gaurav has qualied to seek admission into any of the Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT's) in the country. His preferred choices currently are the top IIT's – Bombay, Delhi and Madras – and with the admission process slated to commence somewhere later next week, his ngers are crossed hoping he can get into his preferred institute. With an interest gravitating t o w a r d s a e r o s p a c e a n d mechanical elds, he believes that being broad areas as such, it will a l l o w h i m t o v e n t u r e i n t o something else in the future. Gaurav also has a passion towards space research and rocket design, some elds he denitely would like to explore in the future. Describing the atmosphere at Mushtifund Aryaan, Gaurav recalls that the students there have ended up spending more time at the institute than they did at home, and as such, they have become one complete family. “We had a lot of funand also helped each other a lot. We would discuss our doubts and solve question papers. The teaches also really encouraged that,” he says, adding, “Our teachers were the people who worked harder than us, for us, so that we could get into a good institute.” The entire two years in Goa has not been a one man show for young Gaurav, as he has, and will always continue to be grateful to his parents for their support. “My sister too, for not troubling me too much,” he says. “I am thankful to all my teachers for all that they have done. As students, we have all done mistakes, but they have always given us second chances and never judged us for our worst mistakes. I' m really grateful for that,” he says. Now with a bounty of extra time on his shoulders considering the little break until the admission process commences, Gaurav has resorted to making up for his lost sleep, while also enjoying a lot of movies. He also has been attempting to learnt to cook, “but I keep burning things, but I'm getting there,” he says.

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