Tea vendor's son topper in JEE(Medical)

Bhubaneswar, June 15 : A tea vendor's son who topped the Orissa Joint Entrance Examination(JEE) in the Medical stream this year, is now finding it difficult to arrange money for his admission.

For the last three days, Deepak Das of remote Baradia village in coastal Jagatsinghpur district, has been hitting the headlines for his success in the JEE.

He stood first among the 22,339 students.

The villagers are delighted at his success, but Deepak's father Rajendra Das, who runs a small tea stall in Kolkata, is worried as he has to arrange sufficient money to get his son admitted to the Medical College to fulfill his long cherished dream.

Rajendra had left for Kolkata 20 years back in search of a job leaving his family members in the village. He started a small business by selling tea on the footpath, but later managed to own a small shop and could manage to send money for the family members who were striving hard to eke out their living.

Notwithstanding the financial constraints, Deepak came out with good marks in both High School certificate Examination and the Plus Two Science Examination and prepared for the JEE as he had a dream to become a doctor and serve the poor people.

On hearing the news of his son's success, Rajendra had rushed to his village to congratulate him but the family members are spending sleepless nights after they were told that they have to spend few lakhs on Deepak to complete his mission. Rajendra's immediate concern was to arrange at least Rs 15,000 to get his son admitted to the Medical College and then a monthly expenditure of nearly Rs 5,000 for the next six years to ensure that his son completed the MBBS course without any hurdles.

While Deepak is busy in attending felicitation functions in the villages for the last two days, his parents were trying hard to find out the means to arrange such a huge fund for him to join the medical stream.

Rajendra's friends in Kolkata however, had assured him to come to his rescue and contribute something to help him get his son admitted into the Medical College.

Like Deepak, another youth Monoj Sahu,also a vendor's son from Singhipur village in the Jagatsinghpur district,had brought laurels for the state by getting into the Indian Administrative Service.

UNI