“I want to become a lieutenant and serve the country,” Chandani said.

After each paper in the board examinations, Chandni would come home and work out how many marks she thought she had lost. By the time the results were declared, she had already run the numbers several times. When the state’s highest commerce score – 494 out of 500 – was confirmed, she wasn’t off the mark.

The same precision ran through her preparation. Chandni did not measure study time in hours. She measured it in targets.

“I never focused on how many hours I studied. I only focused on completing targets. If a target was completed in eight hours or ten hours, it didn’t matter,” she said.

“I faced many ups and downs, but I had written down my aims. I decided that no matter what happened, I would achieve them,” she said.

Chandni’s father, Ram Bhuvan Vishwakarma, works in Bhopal’s furniture market as a carpenter. Her mother, Bimla, works at a school and cooks in homes. The family of four lives in the two-room house in Bhim Nagar, near the Vidhan Sabha.

When books were needed, the family had to think carefully before buying them. Often, Chandni borrowed them from others rather than add to her parents’ expenses. Getting to school – a 45-minute journey each way by auto and bus – was followed by coaching, and only then by study at home. She found she concentrated best when her parents had left for work, and the house was empty.

Her teachers helped with fees. At home, her mother worked to keep the financial anxiety out of Chandni’s view. “Salary was less, and there were many financial difficulties,” said Bimla. “But we never let Chandni feel it. We both managed together so that her studies would not be interrupted.”

Asked what she would tell students who come after her, she said, “Be consistent from the first day. Hard work pays off on the last day.”