College Admissions

If you have driven through any Indian city lately, you have probably seen them — vast hoardings of beaming teenagers, their ranks printed in bold beside a coaching institute’s logo. Newspapers land on the doorstep wrapped in full-page versions of …

Results day arrives. The number on the screen — or the sheet, or the notification — settles into the room. There is a pause before anyone speaks. Then come the calls, the messages, the relatives who somehow already know. And …