For Garg, an additional superintending engineer at Guru Nanak Thermal Plant in Bathinda, the news didn’t come as a surprise as many would have expected. Brilliance runs in his family. In 2007, his son Ankit was sixth in the JEE merit list. He has since finished B-Tech (Computer Science) from IIT Delhi and is now into research with Microsoft at Hyderabad.
Ask Sumegha if she would follow in her brother’s footsteps and she retorts: “I have not thought about whether I would go into research. I will see and follow my instincts,” she says, a history of achievements backing her. Holder of the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) Scholarship, Sumegha is particularly proud of the year 2011.
It brought in its fold another major achievement for this demure Bathinda girl (she went to St Xavier’s School, Bathinda for Class X and finished Classes XI and XII from RB DAV School in the same town) who became one among the five Indian students to qualify for the International Physics Olympiad 2011. In July, she will represent India in the international competition at Bangkok. Interestingly, all former girl toppers of IIT-JEE have also been qualifiers of the International Physics Olympiad - be it Priya Gupta who stood second in JEE 2005 or Akanksha Sharda who was 18th in JEE 2010.
As for Garg and his wife Urmila, Sumegha’s future was never an issue. In fact, they had never imagined their daughter would take the IIT route. “We were not clear of what she would pursue until she took the NTSE exam. That was when we discovered her aptitude for math,” says Garg, who sent his daughter for coaching to Narayna IIT Academy in Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh area. He said coaching was a must to crack the JEE, as it is structured today.
At the academy, Director Anurag Mishra tutored Sumegha for cracking the toughest technical entrance exam in India. “She already knew a lot. She just needed to catch a little speed,” he told TNS today. Other tips came from big brother Ankit.
src.The tribune,chandigarh
