He worked for a living and studied for success

Grinding poverty that forced him to work for his food did not deter a young boy from rural North Karnataka from performing splendidly in SSLC.

Pavan Singh from Huligi, a most backward village in Koppal district, has scored 91.5 percent - 122 marks in Kannada, 99 in Mathematics and 90 in Science.

Pavan lost both his parents, early and was forced to take up odd jobs to make a living. He sold sweets in fairs to earn a few pennies, distributed milk and newspapers at dawn and in the evenings he worked at a sweetmeat stall.

Today, he is the darling of his teachers and villagers, whom he considers as family and owes it to the Aided Tungabhadra High School.

"It's a great honour for the school and the village," said school president Prabhuraj Patil and secretary D B Desai. Pavan’s teachers paid his fees till SSLC as he could not afford it. Pavan never attended tuitions and was completely dependent on teaching in the school, they added.

"He was living in a relative's house. The teachers shifted him to BCM hostel to facilitate him to study well. He would go out early in the morning, sell milk and newspapers, come to school, go to sweet stall work there in the evening, come back to the hostel and study," said  A V Rajesh, a school staff.

Co-curricular activities too

Pavan's oratory and anchoring skills were extremely brilliant. He secured the first prize in Mock Parliament event held in Koppal in December for his role of chief minister.

He was the lone student to be selected from the district for Mock Parliament at Vikas Soudha in Bangalore. He bagged prizes in Kannada and Hindi speeches in Pratibha Karanji competitions held in  Koppal district.

Pavan told Deccan Herald: "I joined a medical shop once my exams got over. I stood before photos of my parents on Thursday morning for half an hour and prayed. I had requested Dr Sikandar Basha whose clinic is very close to the medical shop to find out my results on internet. My joy knew no bound when the doctor told me about the result.”

Pavan added: "I was selling newspapers when the results were out last year. The papers had carried pictures of SSLC toppers. The agent told me that my photograph should appear on papers next year. Those words constantly rang in my ears and pushed me to work hard.” Pavan aims at becoming a doctor.