Dinesh Rajkumar, son of an autorickshaw driver from Enakur in Bhalki taluk, has earned the 31st rank in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).
A student of Sri Channabasaveshwar Gurukul in Karadyal in Bhalki, Dinesh has had the smart streak from his childhood. He scored 93 per cent in the SSLC exams and got 94 per cent marks in the pre-university exam. He stood 500th in the State in the CET medical rankings and had recently joined the MBBS course at Bangalore Medical College, said Basavaraj Molkeri, Gurukul principal.
He studied in Kannada medium till SSLC, before joining the Gurukul for PUC.
His father, Rajkumar, who drives an auto in Bhalki and surrounding villages, does not know much about NEET. He thinks that if Dinesh chooses to pick a seat in the national quota, he will have to leave Karnataka. “My son is already in a medical college in Bengaluru. It will be difficult to send him elsewhere, especially to cities like Delhi or Mumbai. Those cities may be costlier than Bengaluru for him to live in,” he said.
Dinesh’s mother is a homemaker. She is just happy that her son is studying to be a doctor. She wants him to come back and heal the sick in her village.
Dinesh, who came to see his teachers at the Gurukul on Thursday, said he wants to continue studying and pursue research. Teachers and staff were present at a felicitation organised for him and his successful batchmates.
