All play and little work for this genius

Hyderabad: On Sunday, nine-year-old Agastya Jaiswal cleared his Class X Board exams with a 7.5 GPA — a new record for Telangana. And the little genius’ study schedule is enough to make most parents very tense — three to five hours of playing table tennis everyday and preparing for exams only during holidays.

But this “crazy” formula has worked not just for Agastya, but even for his older sister Naina Jaiswal, who holds the record for being the youngest journalism graduate in the country at the age of 13. “If we don’t let Agastya play, he cries. As a parent, I have always given my children the freedom to take decisions on their own and the focus has always been to make the training atmosphere playful,” says Agastya’s father, Ashwani Kumar, an academician.

Agastya begins his day at 6 am and does yoga for 30 minutes. That is followed by his piano class that continues for 15-30 minutes, depending “on his mood”. “He comes back from school at 3 pm and heads for his table tennis practice which gets done at 8,” says Ashwani, who says that studying is usually “on the go”.

“We started teaching him things very early on. So even while he would be eating, we taught him concepts. Also, he asks many questions and during my sessions with the students, he sits in the class and listens,” he says.

“We don’t have a TV or any smartphone; almost all the college students have cellphones, but Naina doesn’t. This gives our children more time to focus and learn whenever we try to incorporate new learning methods. Also, I made sure their basics were strong and that they could easily express their ideas in Hindi, English and Telugu,” says Ashwani.

Agastya, meanwhile, feels “nice” about his achievements. “I study in St. Hills High School in Chandrayangutta and there are 30 students in the class. They were shocked when they realised I was also one of the students,” says Agastya.

Agastya wants to become a doctor and like his sister, will be joining St Mary’s College, Yousufguda. But till then, it’s play time. “Now he is playing TT mornings and evenings as he doesn’t have to worry about exams for sometime,” says Ashwani.