Soyeb Aftab Of Rourkela Creates History

As National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-2020 results were declared, 18-year-old Soyeb Aftab from Odisha’s Rourkela city found his name atop 7,71,500 aspirants. He made history by securing a perfect 720 out of 720 marks. While student fraternity and society went gaga over his spectacular feat, the sacrifice of a lower middle class family to use education to move up the social ladder came to the fore. Since his childhood, Soyeb has been brilliant in his studies. But academic brilliance alone does not ensure success for one in personal and professional space and money matters. And Soyeb’s family understood this reality. After he secured 96.8% marks in Class X from Desouza’s School, Rourkela, in 2018, the family took a conscious decision to facilitate medical coaching for him at Kota so that he overcomes the cut-throat competition.
In April 2018, Soyeb was not alone to move to Kota to pursue XII studies at Sarvodaya School and coaching simultaneously. His mother, Sultana Razia, a homemaker, went with him. His father, Sheikh Mohammed Abbas, kept working in Rourkela to earn to fund their stay at Kota. Mr. Abbas has tea-leaf business and he also deals with construction material.
“I had come to Kota with a dream that I would clear NEET with a good rank. As time progressed, I received support from teachers and my confidence level went up. I was expecting my ranking in the first 500,” Soyeb told media.