Meet Manipur Boy: CBSE's Number 1

The only boy among seven siblings, Ismat is not new to the rankings. He passed his Class X CBSE exam standing second in the state. However, finaces were always a constarit for him. Ismat said “Even after doing well in Class X, I could not get admission to any good school because of this.” He further added “I had to work really hard. I belong to a very poor family. Getting even the most common reading material was a challenge.”

Ismat’s teachers say his sincerity and discipline have allowed him triumph over his difficulties. “He scored 100 in the subject due to his clear mathematical concepts,” the academy’s mathematics teacher, Kangabam Ningthem Pishak, said to TOI.

Mohammad thanks his parents Bashirur Rahman and Shahidan Bibi for their support in helping him get where he is today. He also said “thanks to the support of my school I managed to come out successful.”

So what does Ismat want to do next? The first topper from the North East says that he wants to go to the “best” college, St Stephen’s to study Physics and then “make a difference” to his state. His next stop he says is being the all-India topper in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) entrance examination.

Further, as for North East being in the news in recent past for discrimination and crime against them, Ismat has proved to be a silver lining. Ismat has given North-East and India a reason to rejoice and an inspiration to look up to.