"Get a dream and you do not have to sacrifice fun to chase your dream," says Bhavi, sagely.
For most 17-year-olds, the Class 12 board exams -- the make-or-break tests -- are a stressful experience. For aspiring astronaut Bhavi Jagatia, that stressful period has become one she will remember fondly. That's when the teen from Mumbai won the whopping Rs 2 crore scholarship that will fund her Cornell University tuition and stay, while she earns her aerospace engineering degree.
"I got to know about the Tata scholarship a day before my mathematics board exam and I was so excited," Bhavi, a student of Jamnabai Narsee School in Juhu, tells NDTV.
Bhavi's father Ashok Jagatia says it's very important to first identify what your children want to do and then guide them. "Don't force your dreams on your children," he says. Bhavi's mother says she just had to make sure her daughter was eating and sleeping properly. "The rest she took care of by herself," she says.
And Bhavi did, because even at her young age, she struck a good balance between work and leisure. Painting is her stressbuster. "Get a dream and you do not have to sacrifice fun to chase your dream," says Bhavi, sagely.
Now that the exams, the results and college are all sorted, she wants to make the most of the three-odd months she has left in Mumbai, before she leaves for New York. "My friends and I have decided to explore Mumbai before I leave for my course. We just plan to take the train and go around."
Once at Cornell, she has no dearth of grown-up role models, including the likes of Indian-American astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
That's one dream come true. Now, if only her second dream would too.
Despite all her achievements, Bhavi's still your normal, star-struck teenager. She wants Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor to call her and wish her.
RK, are you listening?