A CUET Rank 1 and a perfect CBSE score have reignited an uncomfortable question: is academic merit ever completely separate from privilege?
Every year, when examination results are declared across India, two kinds of names make the headlines. The first belongs to students from ordinary households — teenagers who burn the midnight oil in modest rooms, with little but ambition to guide them. The second belongs to those who, by accident of birth, carry a more recognisable surname.
This year, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) results have placed both kinds of stories side by side and the comparison is worth examining.
A Perfect Score and a Familiar Name
Devina Gahlot, a student of DPS Vasant Kunj in New Delhi, secured All India Rank 1 in the CUET results announced recently. She is the daughter of Kailash Gahlot, a former minister in the Delhi government. Her achievement has drawn significant attention — not merely because of the rank itself, but because of whose daughter she is.
To her credit, Devina has been forthright about her preparation. She studied between four and ten hours a day, depending on the demands of each subject, and maintained a disciplined sleep schedule — in bed by 11 pm and awake by 7 am. She credits her success not to any marathon study sessions, but to quiet, sustained consistency.
"I knew what I had to get done every day, and I did that, irrespective of how much time it took," she has said.
She also avoided excessive junk food, recognising that physical health was inseparable from academic performance.
Her parents, she notes, never pressured her to excel. Give your best, and whatever the result, you can come home knowing you are supported. It is a nurturing environment and one that many Indian students, regardless of their family's standing, would recognise as ideal.
The Other Side of the Marksheet
Meanwhile, from Ranchi, another story has emerged — that of Avni Kejriwal, who scored a perfect 500 out of 500 in her Class XII CBSE board examinations after a re-evaluation of her answer sheet.
Avni shares no famous surname. What she shares, instead, is a philosophy that closely mirrors Devina's: the importance of keeping the world outside textbooks alive.
Avni played badminton and basketball throughout the year. She wrote essays and drafted business pitches to nurture her interest in entrepreneurship. She never missed a test — whether mandatory or optional — and devoted particular attention to Mathematics, having identified it as her weakest subject.
When the board examinations approached, she increased her study hours to ten or twelve a day. Crucially, however, she did not begin the year that way. The discipline was built gradually, over months, from a foundation of varied interests and consistent habits.
Merit, Privilege, and the Examination Hall
The comparison between these two young women raises a question that Indian society is not always comfortable asking: does the child of a politician who tops an examination deserve the same celebration as a student from an ordinary background who achieves a similar feat?
The honest answer is yes — and it is also complicated.
Devina Gahlot's rank cannot be dismissed simply because of her father's position. The CUET is a standardised, centralised examination. It does not ask who your parents are. In that sense, a rank earned is a rank earned.
And yet, it would be naïve to pretend that the resources available to a minister's daughter — quality schooling, access to coaching, academic support, and a stable home environment — do not constitute advantages that many aspirants do not enjoy.
Avni Kejriwal's perfect score, achieved within a competitive board system from Ranchi and without the same level of metropolitan privilege, deserves to be viewed in that context.
What Both Stories Actually Say
Stripped of their circumstances, both Devina and Avni are telling the same story: sustained consistency, physical well-being, and a life that extends beyond textbooks remain the most reliable ingredients of academic success.
Neither relied on last-minute cramming. Both maintained routines. Both found meaning beyond their syllabi.
The CUET, for all its standardisation, remains an examination in which preparation is often shaped by circumstance. What India's education discourse must retain is the ability to celebrate excellence wherever it appears, while remaining honest about the uneven ground on which that excellence is built.
Devina Gahlot topped the CUET. That achievement is real.
So, too, is the system that made her path smoother than most.
Every year, when examination results are declared across India, two kinds of names make the headlines. The first belongs to students from ordinary households — teenagers who burn the midnight oil in modest rooms, with little but ambition to guide them. The second belongs to those who, by accident of birth, carry a more recognisable surname.
This year, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) results have placed both kinds of stories side by side and the comparison is worth examining.
A Perfect Score and a Familiar Name
Devina Gahlot, a student of DPS Vasant Kunj in New Delhi, secured All India Rank 1 in the CUET results announced recently. She is the daughter of Kailash Gahlot, a former minister in the Delhi government. Her achievement has drawn significant attention — not merely because of the rank itself, but because of whose daughter she is.
To her credit, Devina has been forthright about her preparation. She studied between four and ten hours a day, depending on the demands of each subject, and maintained a disciplined sleep schedule — in bed by 11 pm and awake by 7 am. She credits her success not to any marathon study sessions, but to quiet, sustained consistency.
"I knew what I had to get done every day, and I did that, irrespective of how much time it took," she has said.
She also avoided excessive junk food, recognising that physical health was inseparable from academic performance.
Her parents, she notes, never pressured her to excel. Give your best, and whatever the result, you can come home knowing you are supported. It is a nurturing environment and one that many Indian students, regardless of their family's standing, would recognise as ideal.
The Other Side of the Marksheet
Meanwhile, from Ranchi, another story has emerged — that of Avni Kejriwal, who scored a perfect 500 out of 500 in her Class XII CBSE board examinations after a re-evaluation of her answer sheet.
Avni shares no famous surname. What she shares, instead, is a philosophy that closely mirrors Devina's: the importance of keeping the world outside textbooks alive.
Avni played badminton and basketball throughout the year. She wrote essays and drafted business pitches to nurture her interest in entrepreneurship. She never missed a test — whether mandatory or optional — and devoted particular attention to Mathematics, having identified it as her weakest subject.
When the board examinations approached, she increased her study hours to ten or twelve a day. Crucially, however, she did not begin the year that way. The discipline was built gradually, over months, from a foundation of varied interests and consistent habits.
Merit, Privilege, and the Examination Hall
The comparison between these two young women raises a question that Indian society is not always comfortable asking: does the child of a politician who tops an examination deserve the same celebration as a student from an ordinary background who achieves a similar feat?
The honest answer is yes — and it is also complicated.
Devina Gahlot's rank cannot be dismissed simply because of her father's position. The CUET is a standardised, centralised examination. It does not ask who your parents are. In that sense, a rank earned is a rank earned.
And yet, it would be naïve to pretend that the resources available to a minister's daughter — quality schooling, access to coaching, academic support, and a stable home environment — do not constitute advantages that many aspirants do not enjoy.
Avni Kejriwal's perfect score, achieved within a competitive board system from Ranchi and without the same level of metropolitan privilege, deserves to be viewed in that context.
What Both Stories Actually Say
Stripped of their circumstances, both Devina and Avni are telling the same story: sustained consistency, physical well-being, and a life that extends beyond textbooks remain the most reliable ingredients of academic success.
Neither relied on last-minute cramming. Both maintained routines. Both found meaning beyond their syllabi.
The CUET, for all its standardisation, remains an examination in which preparation is often shaped by circumstance. What India's education discourse must retain is the ability to celebrate excellence wherever it appears, while remaining honest about the uneven ground on which that excellence is built.
Devina Gahlot topped the CUET. That achievement is real.
So, too, is the system that made her path smoother than most.
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