CBSE 12th results: Fighting cancer, Pune boy emerges victorious with 81 per cent

Half a year and months of chemotherapy later, the teenager on Friday celebrated his success at the Class XII examinations, which saw him scoring an impressive 81 percent despite periods of severe pain and discomfort that marked his examinations as well as the preparation period that preceded them.

“It’s not something you plan for; it’s a situation you’re thrown into and I did whatever I could. My teachers helped me a lot through this whole period. Sometimes, they extended the deadline of submissions for me, they sent me question papers for mock exams, gave me their personal notes which they referred to themselves,” Ojas said.

Acknowledging the role of his friends and family members, he said, “For me, group studies are not that productive but for moral support, my friends would get on video calls with me. But most of all, my family and especially my mother helped. I had such extreme mood swings at times, I don’t know how she dealt with them. In fact, I didn’t want to write Term I — the chemo had just started and it was so heavy, I wanted to take a break… but she said it didn’t matter what I scored. She told me to just write the exam.”

Ojas’s mother Anjali, a businesswoman, remembers the day of her son’s diagnosis like it was yesterday.

“It was September 10, 2021 – the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. He had been experiencing fatigue, inability to walk much or feeling like eating. He was detected with jaundice and we took him to a hospital where they ran some tests. The results were not encouraging so they ran a few more tests. They told us he had leukemia and needed to be admitted immediately for two weeks. We jumped right into it, a week of pre-chemo and then chemotherapy started,” she said.

“They told us he can study in hospital but after a few days, it was not possible for him to even sit. We went through a lot of transitions during the next few months but the doctor gave us confidence that he would be treated, so we hung on to that hope,” she recalled.

On some days, Anjali said, Ojas’s blood sugar levels spiked too high or plunged low, making it impossible to concentrate or making him cranky. His blood haemoglobin would drop dangerously low or he would experience nausea, disorientation and would require other medication for covering the side effects of chemo medications.

By the time Term I exams took place in November or December, he was in the thick of things.

“He was never a student who would be locked in a room and study for hours; his grasping power was very good. So, I was confident in his ability to learn even in little time. But more importantly, I needed to give him a purpose, something else to focus on besides his illness. So, I told him to let the doctors do their job while he does his. I told him that it didn’t matter what marks he got, what was important was to make an attempt,” said Anjali. “I used to give him chemo medication and take him to exam centre. He sat alone in library for the exams since his immunity was low, to avoid risk of infection. I requested the principal to allow me to be on the campus, in case anything happened during those hours,” she added.

Anjali’s voice catches a bit as she recalls the pain her son experienced. “He was not able to sit for longer durations for exams, so he would get up. He wasn’t able to stand for practicals, so they took his synopsis on priority basis; they even allowed him to lie down. The medications were so heavy at that time, he used to get cramps in his hand or legs.

He got a separate room but no other concessions, we didn’t apply for any. During the Term II exam, his readings (medical) had become better but he still suffered during the subjective papers,” she said.

Ojas, who is a chess and Rubik’s cube enthusiast and regularly appears for competitions, wants to concentrate on the future now. He had been preparing for IIT-JEE since Class VIII but it’s a dream he has had to let go.

“It’s very intensive, the preparations for JEE, and I know I can’t do it this year. Even if I take a year’s break, I have two more years of chemotherapy to go which I can’t do alone in another city or away from home. So, I have taken admission in an integrated B Tech programme at Symbiosis Skills University with mechatronics as my special subject,” said Ojas.