Growing up, Noida-based Vishal Tyagi had a lot of dreams, including becoming a guitarist. Watching actor Ranbir Kapoor play the instrument in the Bollywood hit Rockstar gave him goosebumps and a lifelong dream. Becoming an engineer had no part in that pursuit.

Somewhere along the way, however, his journey took him on a different path and he found himself enrolled in a course helping students prepare for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), a national-level exam conducted for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes at IITs and NITs, among others.

“I hardly remember when getting into IIT Madras became my dream,” says Tyagi. The reason Madras tops his goal sheet is because of its NIRF Score. NIRF stands for National Institutional Ranking Framework, a methodology adopted by the Government of India to rank institutions of higher education in India. IIT Madras currently tops the chart.

Tyagi certainly has the academic pedigree to get into IIT Madras, having never scored less than 90 percent in any exam since the 7th standard, except on one occasion. And on that occasion, his tutor was sent packing — because Tyagi had scored 87 percent in his high school pre-boards. A new one was brought in and an additional tutor was recruited specifically to help with Chemistry as that subject had reduced his overall percentage.

With so much pressure to perform, Tyagi had a mental breakdown in 2021. Meanwhile, a friend from his JEE preparation class tried to commit suicide, but fortunately survived. Those terrible events still weigh on his mind. “Both of our lives and challenges were similar, with one difference: my friend’s schedule became more intense as time passed. I realised I was just a few moments away from that experience.”

Today, Tyagi, all of 19, is pursuing a BSc course through distance education. And he is still trying to crack the JEE, after failing to make the cut in his first attempt.

Tyagi and his friend are not the only ones who have broken down under the pressure to perform well academically. At this very moment many Indian students are out there staring at the abyss, as they did. Year after year after year, hundreds of thousands of Indian students are subjected to this intense stress as they vie with each other to grab the few seats that are on offer in higher learning institutes such as the IITs, IIMs and medical colleges. Often that pressure begins at an early age, when they are just 10, in the fifth standard. Parents drill it into their heads that failure — which in this case means not making the cut — is not an option.