Requiem for a failed student

While everyone else celebrates this year's toppers, the author wonders about the failures, and how our system has failed them

Last week, when the CBSE Class X board examination results were declared, my daughter performed rather well. After the first euphoric checking of marks followed by an hour of congratulatory calls, I gave the old cook some money to buy some sweets for her family. As she congratulated my daughter, I saw her eyes were red-rimmed. She had just received the news that a distantly-related nephew, barely 17 years of age, had died the day before. “We aren't closely related but since he used to live in the neighbourhood, I’d seen him since he was born…” she said, adding, “it’s