Chandigarh boy tops NEET-PG: lost my uncle to Covid, that drove me to become a doctor

Garg, a resident of Dhakoli, will be the first doctor from a family of engineers. His father Sanjeev Garg is an assistant executive engineer at Haryana Power Generation Limited, and his mother Manju Garg is a primary school teacher at DAV Surajpur School. His sister Aditi is a software engineer at Amazon.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Garg, who had graduated from Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh’s Sector 32 earlier this year, said, “My family is full of engineers. During the second wave of Covid, my entire family fell ill and I lost my maternal uncle who was very close to me. That was when I felt the need to work harder to become a good doctor.

Garg passed Class 10 from St John’s High School in Sector 26 Chandigarh and Class 12 from Sri Guru Gobind Singh Collegiate Public School in Sector 26. He said a curiosity to know more about the human body was a primary reason for him choosing medicine after Class 12.

“God has made the human body a powerful machine, and from the beginning, I was interested in knowing how this machine works,” he said.

Talking about his preparation for NEET PG, Garg said he initially got only three to four hours to study daily as he was also doing an internship, but later started to put in 12 hours.

He also said staying off social media was his success mantra. “I used WhatsApp and Telegram for getting study material and for solving doubts,” he said.

‘NEET PG exam postponement caused anxiety’

Garg admitted that the postponement of NEET PG exams from June 23 to August 11 had caused a bit of anxiety. “It was in the night (before the scheduled exam) when the news of exams being postponed came out, and by then, I had slept. In the morning when I woke up to get ready to write the exam, I saw that the exam had been postponed. It did cause anxiety but such incidents teach you a lot- patience and perseverance,” he said.

Garg said he remained focused and did not let any incident deter his enthusiasm for achieving the goal.

“I want to specialise in medicine and repeated revisions helped me a lot. I kept revising the standard textbooks which form part of the syllabus,” he said.

“Staying focused towards your goal will help you achieve what you want,” he added.