PARENTING THE NATION | Where Dreams Find Their Compass

In 2024, India’s NEET exam produced 67 students with a perfect score of 720/720. A paper had been leaked. An entire generation’s trust had been sold.Gautham studied for six years. He skipped meals, borrowed money, and gave everything he had. When the results came — corrupted by grace marks, riddled with impossibilities — he didn’t protest. He didn’t fight. He was found with a rope instead of a stethoscope.Rudra Kumar couldn’t sleep after that.Parenting the Nation follows Rudra — a 24-year-old aspirant from Bihar — as one question consumes him after watching a baby sleep peacefully on the Howrah Express: Why can’t a nation parent its youth the way a parent cradles a child? From the coaching corridors of Mukherjee Nagar to a rooftop in Kushinara where 17-year-old Shyam is building a revolution with Rs. 180 and a worn diary, this is the novel India’s students needed someone to write. For every aspirant who gave everything to a system that gave nothing back.