Unlike the other students of their age, Mulinti Shaik Wajid of Hyderbad, Harshit Khandelwal from Indore and Prashant Gokhale from Mumbai are not really a staunch believer of joining JEE prep or NEET prep classes because they have bigger dreams than other people—a dream to reach the ‘stars’.The trio from Hyderabad, Indore and Mumbai beat thousands to represent India at the olympiad. National Council for Science Museums, headquartered in the city and a wing of the culture ministry, zeroed in on them after at least three rounds of elimination tests and is all set for the International Astronomy Olympiad 2016.
Only Mulinti Wajid has crossed the threshold of a board exam whilst the other duo are still in class X. Wajid not only has a great aptitude for astronomy but as a student is also excellent. Wajid earned a perfect 10 CGPA in the Telengana Board Exam and hails from Sri Chaitanya School in Hyderabad. Celebrations continue at the school as Wajid is reaching milestone after milestone. Apart from his interest in science and maths, Wajid is extremely good in languages and social studies too. His brother Sajid, who is a B-tech engineer himself, says that his brother isn’t meant to have a normal engineering degree and a campus placement. He has high hopes form Wajid as like the rest of us.
Prashant on the other hand, a student of RN Poddar School in Mumbai recalls his introduction to the world of stars at the age of 6 by his father, who is a professor by profession. When Prashant is asked about his thoughts regarding astronomy, he clearly stated that astronomy is the mother of all science according to him and that he is grateful to his school teachers for their support in his ambition. Prashant however has managed to keep his focus towards his school studies at the same time which is evident from his A1 grades throughout his academic career in school. Similar is the story of Harshit from Bhavan’ s School in Indore.
The selection was done via a 3 tier elimination test with a National Standard Examination conducted at 1000 centres across the country by the Indian Association for Physics. The total number of participants was 30000 this year with only 574 making it to the next round. That was conducted for the Basic Sciences by the University of Mumbai. After this round the top 21 made it to the final round that was conducted at Kolkata which was a 3 part test—theory, lab data test and observation test.
So as the trio is all set to represent the country at International Astronomy Olympiad 2016 in Bulgaria in October, a big leap for all of their dream career indeed.
Source: goo.gl/s6Zcdi
