A Dream Shattered
In a tragic turn of events, 17-year-old Kahaan Patel took his life just three days before he was due to sit India's rescheduled medical entrance examination. The exam had been cancelled due to a question paper leak, forcing nearly two million candidates to take the examination again. Kahaan was one of at least 21 students who died by suicide, allegedly upset over the repeated exam failures.
A Family's Loss
Kahaan's family is left trying to understand how an examination scandal had become a matter of life and death. His father, Prashant Patel, remembers how Kahaan announced his dream of becoming a doctor after scoring well in school leaving exams. The family reorganized their lives around that ambition, moving to Ahmedabad so Kahaan could attend a better school and prepare seriously for his exam.
"He took that decision himself," his father says. "We only supported him."
Kahaan wasn't just a teenager consumed by textbooks. He played football, devoured Harry Potter novels, loved science-fiction films, and spent hours teaching himself hard-rock guitar riffs. He had recently secured a US visitor visa and was excited about returning to Disneyland after the exam.
The Impact of the Exam Scandal
After the exam paper leak was announced, Kahaan's parents tried to shield him from the reports, but it was impossible. Friends from his coaching classes were already discussing the leak, and he rushed back from a holiday with friends to retrieve his notes and textbooks. Within days, the government announced a retest, and Kahaan became angry and frustrated.
"He kept asking me: 'Is this a system? Is this how it works? What is my fault? What is the fault of students who gave the exam honestly? Why is the government taking it so casually?'"
His father tried to reassure him, but now wonders whether his words sounded like comfort or resignation. Nothing suggested a crisis, but on the evening of June 17, Kahaan spoke to his father and grandfather, asking his grandfather to bring back Puma football boots, Levi's jeans, and jackets from Melbourne.
The Aftermath
Hours later, Kahaan was dead. Only afterwards did friends tell his father how deeply the examination scandal had unsettled him. Kahaan's family was not alone in asking questions about the system's failure. Another family, in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, was trying to understand an equally unimaginable loss. Pradeep Kumar, 23, had taken his own life before the NEET retest, leaving his family devastated.
The examination scandal has sparked an extraordinary youth uprising, with thousands demanding accountability for repeated exam failures. The deaths of these young students have become a symbol of the system's failure, and their families are left to pick up the pieces and wonder what could have been done differently.