JEE Main: Father cycles for two and a half hours to bring son to examination centre

By Team Newsable | First Published Sep 3, 2020, 6:28 PM IST

Students came from various places in West Bengal to appear for the JEE examination in Salt Lake. Along with the students, guardians also had to undergo hardship to bring their children to the examination centre amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kolkata: It was not just a test for the candidate, but also for his father; the test of cycling for two and a half hours with his son sitting at the back.

Rabindranath Mandal's home is in Gosaba in the Sundarbans. Rabindranath, who is a carpenter by profession, has a son who appeared for the All India Joint Entrance Examination this year (2020) with the dream of becoming an engineer.

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Standing in front of the examination centre in Sector Five, Salt Lake, Rabindranath said, “The local train is still not running. The bus services is also less. So, I had to come to Salt Lake from Gosaba with a little hard work.”

Also read: West Bengal: School reopens despite government order, conducts examination for students

The father and the son started for the examination centre on Tuesday (September 1) afternoon. They had two bicycles. They cycled for four and a half hours from Gosaba to Piyali. After spending the night at a relative's house, he reached Sonarpur on a bicycle on September 2 morning. However, this time the father cycled with his son behind him for two and a half hours. Then they took a bus from Sonarpur to Science City. From there, again they changed the bus and came to Sector Five, Salt Lake. Rabindranath Babu said, “I did not allow my son to ride a bicycle today (September 2) because of the examination. If he gets tired of riding a bicycle, then he won’t be able to do well in the examination.''

Diganta, his son said, “if the train service was available, then my father wouldn’t have done so much hard work.”

Also read: Kolkata metro introduces online smart card recharge facility to ensure faster commute

Nalin Barman arrived in Kolkata on a 'Night Service’ bus with her son Shubhankar from Balurghat two days ago due to train suspension. They stayed in a relative's house in Dunlop. Standing in front of the examination centre, Nalin Barman said, “My son has become very tired because he sat on the bus the whole night. There is also a fear of COVID infection. But I can't afford to rent a car.”

Mother Pratima Kha has rented a car from Gaighata to bring her son Protul to Salt Lake for the examination. Pratima said, “A lot of money was spent. But there is no other option except this.”

The candidates of the examination said that the safety rules were followed in the B-Tech examination. The number of candidates was higher on September 2 than September 1. However, there was a complication at the back of the entry line, despite several announcements over the microphone to maintain a considerable distance from each other.

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