JEE Advanced Toppers List a Melting Pot of Geniuses, Sports Enthusiasts and Grafters

Hyderabad: All India JEE Advanced topper Vavilala Chidvilas Reddy on Sunday shared his simple mantra to do well in competitive exams — stay away from books for five days before the exams to stay mentally fresh.

“It's probably being worry-free and not clogging my mind days before the exam that gave me an edge over others,” said Reddy, of LB Nagar, adding that he spent days approaching the exam by referring only to a few NCERT textbooks.

Beating last year’s JEE top-ranked by 27 marks was no mean feat, but Reddy shrugged it off, attributing it to taking breaks and playing sports, like cricket and tennis, to relax. “Foosball is an all-time favourite stressbuster,” he said.

He said that neural networking and artificial intelligence have always piqued his interest and he wants to explore these fields in college.  

Second ranker Ramesh Surya Theja, who scored 336 out of 360, is no newcomer to the top echelon of competitive exams. He came 28th in the JEE Mains, as well as the TS EAMCET, while securing the 37th rank in the AP EAMCET.  

A native of Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, the boy from Venugopalapuram village yearns to become a CEO for a multinational company. “Right now, IIT Bombay is my goal and I hope a course in CSE will take me closer to my dreams,” Theja said.  

Having a mathematics teacher for a father and a physical science teacher for his mother, Theja was destined to gravitate towards engineering. His brother is also pursuing an engineering course, at IIT Varanasi.

“We knew he had in him to get into the IIT of his choice, but getting the second rank is no small feat. He has always been a hard worker,” said Theja’s beaming father, R. Ramesh.

Bikkina Abhinav Chowdary, who secured the seventh rank, attributes his success to his parents and lecturers. He said, “I can't wait to join my dream college and course (IIT Mumbai, CSE),” he said.  

Srinivas, his father, said: “We are extremely proud of our son and the celebrations won't stop any time soon. He has a great ability to not allow any distractions to hamper his concentration.”

Siddharth Reddy from Hyderabad secured the 17th rank in the persons with disability category. He shrugged off the congenital hand deformity, due to which he has shorter hands and three fingers on his dominant hand, but said losing his father during his first year of Intermediate was harder on him.

Siddharth said that his mother refused to let grief deter him. “My father's dream and mother's support inspired me to achieve what I did. Society has let me down on multiple occasions; my only goal in life is to get to a position in life where I uplift others,” the 18-year-old said.