Proving the adage that age is just a number, one Hukumdas Vaishnav, a 77-yea-old retired government employee from Jalore, who flunked class X exams 55 times, has now got enrolled for class XII exams.
Hukumdas Vaishnav cleared the class X exam in 56th attempt.
The story of this man pursuing his studies in his 70s is a source of inspiration for many.
Born in 1945 in Sardargarh village of Jalore, Hukumdas passed class 1 to 8 from Teekhi village. For the first time in 1962 in Mokalsar, he gave the class X examination. The examination centre was in Barmer. While he got supplementary in the first exam, he failed for the second time. His friends challenged that he will never clear his class X exam.
Accepting the challenge, Hukumdas promised that he shall clear his class X exam one day.
Hukumdas Vaishnav says that he became a fourth grade employee in the Ground Water Department.
Thereafter, he left regular studies and started appearing for examinations as a volunteer.
In 2005, he retired from the Treasury Department as a Class IV employee. Till 2010, he appeared for class X exam organized by the Board of Secondary Education for 48 times. After that, he tried from the State Open Board and finally in 2019, he passed 10th class exam with second division. After that he got enrolled for class 12 in 2021-22 session and will now appear for exams.
On Tuesday, Hukumdas Vaishnav applied from the 12th arts class exams at Government Higher Secondary School, which is the reference centre for the State Open in Jalore city.
Interestingly, even his grandson has completed his schooling.