THE BASKETBALL PLAYER
Devishi Sarda 
•School: Modern High
•ICSE aggregate: 95%

 

Sometime last October, Devishi was in the middle of her Class X terminal examinations when she was called to the Red Road grounds for what would become a milestone in her career as a basketball player.

The 16-year-old has no qualms admitting that she was "slightly more tensed about getting into the Bengal team for the nationals than my ongoing exams".

Devishi, who stands 5ft and eight-and-a-half inches in her socks, not only qualified to play for her state in the 31st youth national tournament in Chandigarh but also went on to become the highest scorer in three matches.

She returned home and played more tournaments till December before an injury-induced break from basketball allowed her a little more time for studies.

Devishi's performance in ICSE 2015 matches her rising curve in basketball. She has scored 95 per cent overall with an enviable subject break-up of 94 in English, 90 in science and 97 in economics, maths and history.

"Had I not hurt a foot, I would have played tournaments even in January. At least on one occasion, I played a tournament until a day before an exam," Devishi said.

Playing a sport at the national level and pursuing an education simultaneously can tell on a teenager but Devishi has learnt to divide her time between both. "I have been in my school team since I was in Class V and I have always had to juggle studies and my chosen sport, more so after getting selected to represent my state," she said.

Practising for four to five hours a day means reaching school a little late. She also has to excuse herself to leave early for afternoon training. But it's all in a day's work for Devishi.

Before a national tournament, her regimen includes six hours of "gruelling training" split into two sessions of three hours each, including an hour of workout and two hours of play. "Of the eight periods in a day, I would attend only four but my school and teachers have been very supportive. They have helped me make up for the loss of class hours," Devishi said.

There were instances when Devishi also missed class tests because of tournaments.

"A tournament schedule isn't drawn up by considering that you have an exam in school. While selecting you for a national tournament, the basketball association is very strict about regularity in training. Excuses don't work," Devishi said.

And when did she study to score 95 per cent in ICSE? "In the evening, after returning home. I had to cut down on leisure, of course, but it was all worth it," declared the budding basketball star.

 

THE ROWER
Shramana Saha 
•School: Modern High
•ICSE aggregate: 90.4%

Almost every morning, sharp at 6, Shramana can be found at Rabindra Sarobar starting her usual 6km rowing session following an hour of running, stretching and other exercises.

Two-and-a-half hours later, she is in her school uniform, attending classes like any other girl of her age. "When I reach school, I see my friends and can't help thinking that my day began a long time before theirs," Shramana said.

After six years of competitive rowing, including four sub-junior nationals, two junior nationals and a several inter-school regatta championships, Shramana has learnt what it takes to be an all-rounder. Her aggregate of 90.4 per cent in the ICSE exams is the reward of never making rowing an excuse to miss school.

Shramana's break-up of scores reads: English 90, science 90, history and geography 94, maths 95, economic applications 78 and Bengali 83.

In Class X, the 16-year-old had participated in two inter-school regatta championships and won four gold medals. She was also a volunteer for the 2014 nationals that Bengal hosted,

Ask her how she managed to fit everything into a day and Shramana is modest to a fault. "I would study in the evening. Rowing doesn't eat into study time directly but it does tire you out.... My friends would stay up late to study and I would be asleep then," she said.

But giving fewer hours to books didn't mean that Shramana would have been satisfied with less than what she scored in the exams. "Excuses are not for me. There are many people who do a lot of things," she said.

According to Shramana, rowing complements her pursuit of academics rather than competing for her time. "The training is rigorous but it also acts as a booster and opens up my mind. If I stop training, I will lose focus and maybe stop studying," she said.

 

THE CHESS PLAYER
Dishan Barua  
•School: St. James’ School
•ICSE aggregate: 89.6%

He is the lead guitarist of the school band, can play the piano and is also so good at chess that he won a gold medal in the 2013 Commonwealth Championship.

Dishan is just as focused on studies, borne out by his 89.6 per cent aggregate in ICSE 2015 with a break-up of 92 marks in science, 92 in maths, 92 in economics, 86 in English, 86 in social studies and 83 in Bengali.

Although chess is in his genes - Dishan is the son of Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua - the 16-year-old's heart apparently lies in music. "I am a trained guitarist and I learnt the basics of the piano. Moreover, being part of a band, one automatically learns to play the drums," he said.

Dishan's school band performs regularly in inter-school festivals. Before that, he and three of his classmates had a band that performed at a Puja function in Salt Lake.

Chess tournaments too featured prominently in his 2014 calendar, although father Dibyendu insists that Dishan hasn't taken to the sport naturally. "He isn't much interested in chess. His interest lies in music," said India's second Grandmaster after Viswanathan Anand.

Dishan reserves four days a week for guitar rehearsals, which includes "not less than four to five hours of playing at a stretch".

And where do studies fit in? "At night, when I can't play the guitar!" he quipped.

 

THE TENNIS player
Sanil Jagtiani 
•School: Akshar 
•ICSE aggregate: 95%

When his classmates were writing their pre-board papers in January, he was in Chennai playing a tennis tournament.

It wasn't the first time that Sanil, 16, had been away from school. He would invariably miss three to four months of classes every year to compete in national and international tennis tournaments.

On Monday, Sanil was accepting congratulatory messages not for a tennis triumph but for scoring 95 per cent in ICSE, a feat achieved by "squeezing studies in between my tennis".

Sanil's success is proof that chasing glory in sport needn't be the end of academic excellence.

"At times, it's hard to manage, especially when you know you have a board exam coming up. In tennis, the older you are, the harder you have to perform. As for me, I like to perform in both tennis and studies," he said.

Sanil has been playing tennis since the age of six. The teenager was in Class VII when he made up his mind to pursue the sport professionally and his life since then has been "about travelling and playing tennis for a quarter of a year".

"I have had to take tough decisions, especially when tournaments clashed with exams.... I couldn't afford to miss many tournaments either because that would have affected my ranking," recalled Sanil.

The last national tournament he played was the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship in October 2014, followed by the ITF Juniors in Hyderabad, where he reached the quarterfinals.

So, when and how did he catch up with studies to ace his exams?

"I would be back home by 6-6.30pm and practise maths for 45 minutes before retiring to bed at 8.30pm. I would focus on maths because I had performed miserably in that subject in my Class IX terminal exams," he said.