’I was never a bookworm’

City ICSE topper from St Mary's School says striking balance between studies and hobbies was key to her success; six schools declare cent per cent results

'I was never a bookworm'

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'I was never a bookworm'

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City ICSE topper from St Mary's School says striking balance between studies and hobbies was key to her success; six schools declare cent per cent resultsu00a0

"Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would top the exams in the city. It's incredible." Trite though it may sound, ICSE exams city topper Aishwarya Bafna insists that is how she really feels. Elated beyond belief, she said it was the first time she had ever topped an exam.

Revelling in glory: ICSE topper from city Aishwarya Bafna with her family;

Somdeep Dey of Bishop's school topped ISC.

"I have never even stood first in my school before this; in fact I have not even made it to the top three. Even after the exams, I had told my family that the preliminary exams were better than boards," said Bafna. The Ganeshkhind Road resident said that she has never been a bookworm but maintained a healthy balance straddling studies and her hobbies.

"Except the last five days running up to exams when I really felt nervous, I never studied for 12 to 14 hours a day. I always made it a point to pursue my interests likeu00a0 playing badminton or basketball and photography,"
she said.

For now, Bafna is clueless what she wants to do ahead in life. "I will take admission in the commerce stream. Earlier I had thought of doing an MBA but now, I am not so sure. I shall think about it later," said Bafna. Six schools from the city have recorded 100 per cent results namely, St Mary's, St Helena's, Bishops, Hutchings, Vidya Valley and Riverdale International School.

Girls surpass boys
This year too, girls beat the boys to the zenith. There are two girls among the top three. Besides Bafna, Ananya Mondal from St Mary's got second place, while Darren Pereira from St Mary's Boys School stood third in the city and first among the boys with 97.4 per cent.

Besides Std X, results were also declared for Std XII or Indian Secondary Certificate (ISC). Bishop's school in Camp scored over other schools in this category. Their students Somdeep Dey with 96.25 per cent, Abhishek Bairy with 96 per cent and Anuradha Venkatramani with 95.75 per cent were top scorers in the city. The toppers at St Mary's School were Nikita Kumar and Aditya Sant with 93.6 per cent.

Toppers
St Mary's Girls School: Aishwarya Bafna 98%
St Mary's Boys School: Darren Pereira 97.4%
Bishops School: Dhruv Chaudhuri 97%
St Helena's: Reshul Dani 96.5%
Hutchings School: Rushal Handa 96%
Vidya Valley: Manasi Wadekar 93%
Riverdale International School: Shivani Movaliya 91.2%
Hume McHenry: Tara Shaikh 91%