Bengaluru (DHNS): A fine balance between academics and other interests is what helped the Bengaluru ICSE students come out on top.

Netra Char Bhat already has much to be proud of being a national-level champion in sports climbing. Now with the declaration of ICSE results, Netra found herself to be ranked second in the state, with a score of 98.8%. The student of Vidya Niketan School attributes her success to the hard work she put in during the last two months before the boards.

“I did not expect to top because I did not study much until I got study holidays”, said Netra. She has not decided on her future course of action, yet. For now, she will focus on practising sports climbing, which she has been training in for the past seven years.

Vaishnavi R, a student of St. Paul’s English School, JP Nagar, secured the third rank in the state with 98.6%. “The school has been preparing us for the boards as soon as the ninth standard exams got over, I used to go for tuitions in the morning and extra classes in school,” said Vaishnavi. She attributes her rank to her parents and her teachers who gave her all the needed support. “My parents were very supportive, they never pestered me to study all the time, which meant I could do things I liked in my time off.” She plans to take up science for class 11.

Anjali Gurajapu of Greenwood High, who also came third, wants to become a biomedical engineer and do research which will help save lives. For her board exams, Anjali worked hard by studying a certain number of chapters every day regardless of how long it took her. “I was in California before. So when we moved here for my grade six, I felt like everything here was a repetition of what I knew,” she said. Anjali is into art and animation and she paints in her free time.

Another third-ranker, Pragya Mitra, had been aspiring to be a cardiac surgeon ever since class 8, when her father underwent a bypass surgery. “I want to do science in class 12 and then want to join AIIMS for MBBS,” said the student of Baldwin Girls’ High School. Along with this, Pragya also nurses a dream to become a dancer.