Rajasthan: Convict's son puts up in jail, cracks JEE exams with flying colours

Jaipur: Where there is will, there is a way. Hailing from a small town in Rajasthan, Peeyush Meena’s story seems to set forth the aforesaid essence. Despite being the son of a convict and putting up in an open jail for two years, he cracked the Joint Entrance Exams (JEE) with flying colours securing a rank of 453 in JEE-Advanced under the ST category.

It wasn’t a cake walk for Peeyush as he had to endure a lot of hardships in jail. Open jails are run according to certain set of rules, for instance lights were switched off at 11 pm, which made Peeyush’s task harder. The room being a mere 8x8 made things difficult for the father-son duo; his father Phool Chand Goyal used to leave the room, while he studied hard throughout the night till 4 am. Goyal failed to afford his son’s hostel fees. After prolonged prodding and cajoling, he amassed Rs 1 lakh from his relatives and friends which was just sufficient for his coaching classes.

“I required Rs 2 lakh, which included coaching and hostel fees. After convincing my relatives and friends for months, I could arrange Rs 1 lakh, which was not enough to cover even the coaching fees,” said Goyal, as quoted in a news report.

There were other people who were also responsible for Peeyush’s feat, said Goyal. The guards at the jail were cooperative enough. They the young ones, supported Peeyush through out his stint in the jail.

“We are happy that he has made a success, despite such adverse circumstances,” said the jail superintendent.

Paging through the instances of past, Peeyush said that he had never mentioned to people that his father was a convict. However, he is proud of his father as he went out of his way to get him the needed support.