Academically, Aniruddha Saraf’s consistent brilliance had convinced his parents Ajay and Mayuri that their son was meant for the best, and so when on Sunday, results for IIT-JEE Mains were announced, Aniruddha’s name was not only in the list of successful candidates, but he had bagged an all-India rank of 110. “He studied over 16-17 hours a day. We were sure he would succeed,” he said. Aniruddha was one of the students of Pune's Bakliwal Tutorials, although his family comes from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, where he finished his schooling. “He hopes to get into IIT Bombay and is keenly interested in Computer Sciences,” he said. While Ajay is an IT engineer, Mayuri is a homemaker, and their younger child Aditya is in school. For Pranav Ramanajum, IIT was always a dream, as his sister Shreya is a third year student in IIT Madras. “It was my sister’s experience which motivated me to go for IIT,” he said. Pranav completed his Class 10 from St Mary’s School, and his junior college from SNBP International School in Manjri. Like his sister Shreya, Pranav had enrolled with the Prime Academy for IIT coaching. “On an average I studied over nine hours daily,” he said. Pranav’s father Ramanajum is an engineer and his mother Lakshmi is a homemaker. IIT Bombay or Madras, Pranav said would be his first preference and wishes to study either Mechanical Engineering / Engineering Physics. Pranav’s all-India rank is 1,222. Lalit Kumar, CMD of Prime Academy, confirmed that of the 205 students from the academy who had appeared for IIT-JEE, 55 have cracked JEE Advanced. Student Apurva Mahajan, from Bakliwal Tutorials, who bagged an all-India rank of 319, said that other than sleep and studies, she did not do anything else during her preparation. “I want to take Computer Science and IIT Mumbai will be my first choice,” said Mahajan — a student of City International School and SNBP Morwadi. Mahajan’s father Prakash works in the automotive industry and her mother Dipali is a homemaker.
