Mohammad Arbaaz Ahmed was in eighth standard when his father suffered a paralytic stroke. He remembers his brothers carrying their father Mohammad Saleemoddin to hospitals in Basava Kalyan and Bidar. Doctors said that it may be a result of an accident or injury in the past. They began a series of treatments, but little came of it.
He lost his job and was barely mobile. His wife started working as a house help to keep the hearth warm. Saleemoddin was a lorry driver handling goods vehicles between Mumbai and Hyderabad. He worked overtime to feed his large family and send his children to school.
But the illness affected the family badly.
This, however, did not deter the children from succeeding in school. His eldest son got into an engineering college, another got into medicine and the third became a dentist.
Arbaaz, who has obtained the 85th rank in the NEET all India rankings and the third rank in the State, says that his brothers who succeed in the face of adversity, inspired him. “My parents also supported me. Four years ago my father suffered a stroke and became bed-ridden for months. But he never asked me to quit studying or take up a job. He nudged me to keep studying so that I could become a doctor and help a lot of people,” Arbaaz told The Hindu .
He says he is likely to be accepted into the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. The studious youth, however, does not want to stop at MBBS. “I want to complete my post-graduation and then, take up research to create low- cost treatment for the poor,’’ he said.
Arbaaz scored 97 % in PU and 92 % in SSLC exams. He joined the Bidar-based Shaheen PU College. The college admitted Arbaaz free, just as it had admitted his two brothers.
“This year, we have admitted 300 students free, against our intake of 1500,” said Abdul Quadeer, secretary of Shaheen PU College that has produced NEET toppers Karthik Reddy and Arbaaz.
Karthik Reddy’s father Rama Reddy is a professor of mechanical engineering in Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College in Bidar.
His mother Kalpana is a government primary school teacher. “My elder brother is an engineer. He is a student of M.Tech. But I was not sure of what to do after PU. I got interested in medicine after discussing with my friends at the college,’’ he said.
He was a day boarder who chose a semi residential model which meant he went to college at 7 in the morning only to return home at 9 p.m.. He says that he spent the lockdown period solving past question papers. The college staff came home to give the papers and collect the answer sheets every day. “We kept in touch with our teachers via phone and video conference calls,” he said.
