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Smart science student Shreya Tripathy believes that hard work, dedication and a dream … plus the sound of the Piano Guys … proved to be the key to her success and helped carry her through this year’s Indian curriculum examinations and on to mark a magnificent final achievement.
The 17-year-old New Millennium School Bahrain student, from Saar, scored a staggering 96.8 per cent in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination (AISSCE), which was overseen by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), alongside 628 other pupils.
They were the highest marks recorded this year, equalling schoolboy Varun Madan Mohan’s success, as featured in last week’s GulfWeekly.
Shreya said: “The day the CBSE board results were announced I was in Dubai. My friends started congratulating me with calls, texts and messages.
“Throughout the year I had been balancing studies for my board examination (NCERT) and the entrance exams for admission into engineering colleges (FIITJEE coaching) in India as I would like to pursue a mechanical or chemical engineering degree course in one of the country’s top universities.
“I gained immensely from the FIITJEE coaching (for Engineering Entrance Examination in India), which I had enrolled in for the last two years. However, my main aim in the future is to carry out social work and contribute to my country in whatever little way I can.”
The bright teen with a big heart had spent 15 days prior to the examination in solitude, studying throughout the day to achieve her goal with an occasional break for music to re-energise.
She added: “I am passionate about music. In fact, music is what kept me going during those taxing hours when I was studying for my exams. Of course, a thorough study of each subject and a lot of hard work has to be put in to achieve a goal as high as this. However, I believe, that if you have the desire, the determination and the dedication towards your goal then it becomes comparatively easier.”
Her favourite sounds include English classical and Hindi music and a group called The Piano Guys, an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson and Al van der Beek.
They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Their first three major-label albums each reached number one on the Billboard New Age Albums and Classical Albums charts.
Shreya has also achieved musical success in her own right and came runner-up in the Nescafe Show ’em What You Got talent show staged in Bahrain in 2012 and also appeared in an Indian TV music contest entitled Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs in 2007 making it through the first two rounds.
The family has a cabinet dedicated to displaying her awards and trophies. She was the president of WMC Gavels Club for two years and won prizes in the Gavel Clubs Annual Contests.
Also for four years in Indian School Bahrain, where she studied until Year 10, she won the Kalaratna Award for the girl who wins maximum awards in co-curricular activities such as poetry recitation, music and speech contests.
Shreya added: “Hard work and complete devotion to your goal pays off. This is the motto that I followed and I would like to tell all the students of Bahrain that if you have a goal, then chase it!”
Shreya’s father Manoj, 45, works for the YBA Kanoo Group, and mother, Ipsa, 43, has a post at The British Council. They are elated and proud of their daughter’s latest achievement.
