Notes from Kota | A day in the life of a teenage student in India's education capital

When Rahul, a 14-year old student got a call from one of Kota’s largest coaching classes in November last year, his excitement knew no bounds.
He wanted to go to the city to study ever since he watched ‘Kota Factory’, a hit series on Netflix, that didn't just romanticise the Indian coaching town, but also showcased its pitfalls.

But for Rahul, the pressure cooker-like atmosphere, the obsession with test scores, or the intense competition didn't matter, as Kota was his ticket to make it to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology.

“My parents had enquired about coaching in Kota when I was in Class 6, and the plan was that I will join in Class 8. I knew very little about it. One of my friends asked me to watch Kota Factory. Since then, I was excited to go to the town and study,” says Rahul.

“Then there was the pandemic for two years and I was wondering if classes in Kota will ever open again, and if I will ever get an opportunity to go to Kota. But, thankfully the classes started reopening again last year. My parents always wanted me to go to Kota, as they felt I would get some discipline, and I always looked at it as an opportunity to just go for four years, study hard and come out with better results,” he says.

Rahul, now 15, a single child, comes from a small town near Gurugram. While Rahul’s father works in a factory as an engineer, his mother is a homemaker. His story is a microcosm of lakhs of such students who flock to Kota every year, with dreams of cracking competitive examinations that will guarantee them a place in a leading engineering or medical institution.

He says he aspires to become a computer engineer, and wants to get into either IIT Bombay or IIT Delhi. Rahul’s hobbies are listening to music and coding. Since he was in Class 4, he used to sit at his computer and try coding by watching YouTube videos.

Rahul is currently staying in a single-occupancy room at Himgiri Boys Hostel, located right at the centre of Rajeev Gandhi Nagar, where almost all major coaching institutes have centres. He pays a rent of Rs 14,000 per month, inclusive of three meals at the hostel mess.

“If you see, there are better hostel rooms available. This hostel may not be the cleanest, but I wanted a place that is nearest to my classes,” says Rahul.
Rahul has a desk in his hostel room that is full of test preparation books.

When asked if he reads all of those books, he says, he aims to finish all the books by the academic year end.

“If I am able to do that, I will be able to crack the IITs,” he says.
While he is a student of Allen Career Institute, he also has books from other tuition classes like Unacademy, Motion Classes, and Bansal Classes, among others. He says he has borrowed a few books from his seniors at his former school in Gurugram, who made it to the IITs. He is currently enrolled with one of Allen’s evening batches, and paid nearly Rs 1.3 lakh as tuition fees for this year.

He has regular classes for six days a week and gets some time off on Sundays. He spends most of it at his hostel room either sleeping or listening to songs.

“I am already spending a lot on studies and other things. I don’t want to put more burden on my parents by spending on movies and outside food,” says Rahul.

“I have decided to follow a strict schedule for three years here in Kota and my only destination is an IIT,” he adds in a serious tone.

For a 15-year old, his schedule is packed. He has classes for about four hours every day for six days a week, and he says he studies for nearly six hours every day. During the week, whenever he gets time, he talks to his parents for about 10 to 15 minutes. He says he misses his home a lot, but has prepared himself mentally for this.

“Mostly I talk about my studies with my parents. They always try and keep me motivated. Whenever I talk to mom, I miss her a lot," he says.

“But as days passed, I made friends here and I am lucky to keep myself engaged with them,” Rahul adds.

An educator, who has taught Rahul, requesting anonymity, said, “Most of the kids’ schedules are like that. But many are not as motivated as Rahul.”

“Our job is to make sure that all students, however, stay fit physically and more importantly, stay fit mentally. We, ourselves, help students with their schedules and advise them. But one thing is for sure, if these students follow a schedule like this for two years, they will become successful in their lives, whether or not they crack the IITs,” the educator added.

Rahul says that if he doesn’t manage to get into any of the IITs in his first attempt, he will take the advice of his teachers and parents and try for other institutes like Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) or National Institute of Technology (NIT). When asked if he would try again, Rahul said that he won’t, as he does not want to waste his parents’ money.

“If I am good enough, I will clear the exam in the first attempt, else I will look to get into some of the country’s other top institutes. I will not try again, and I think it has nothing much to do with classes, it has a lot to do with how I perform,” he signs off.