New Delhi: Thounaojam Loyangamba Meitei was washing stone chips at a construction site when he found out that he had come fourth in Manipur’s class XII commerce stream examinations.
The part-time daily wage earner, who aspired to become a civil servant, was forced to take up work at an early age to help his family battle poverty.
At first, he couldn’t quite believe his ears when his friend called him with the news.
“All that I wanted in the XIIth exams was to do better than my matriculation, when I scored 70.2 per cent,” Meitei told PTI over the phone.
Though he fell short of his target by a whisker — scoring 69.2 per cent marks — finding himself among the toppers was something he never expected.
Meitei scored 346 marks out of a total of 500 in the examinations conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education Manipur, the results for which were announced on Tuesday.
He was the sole student from a government institution Churachand Higher Secondary School to break the traditional grip of the Don Bosco school over the top five spots. (PTI)