By IANS
Jaipur : The results of Rajasthan secondary school board's class 10 examinations have shattered 73 year old Shiv Charan's dreams of getting married.
A resident of Kohari village in Alwar district, over 140 km from the state capital, Shiv Charan has been taking the class 10 examinations for the last 38 years. The results of this years' examination were declared Tuesday and he has again failed to qualify.
In the early years of his life, he vowed to marry only after clearing the secondary school examination. He is yet to fulfill his promise.
This time, he secured only 103 marks out of a total 600 and was not able to pass in any subject except for Sanskrit. Despite poor marks in most subjects, he blames mathematics for his dismal performance.
"Though this time I failed in almost all the subjects but it's the mathematics paper that always drags me a year behind my expectations," said Shiv Charan.
Asked whether he would like to appear for the Open School board examinations as he has been consistently failing the Rajasthan board examinations, he replied: "I'd rather die than go back on my word. It is not in my nature to change from one board to another. I will continue taking the board examinations till I pass it".
An optimist to the core, Shiv Charan has again begun studying for the next year's examinations. He took his first board examinations in 1969 and since then passing class 10 has been the only goal of his life.
"For me, success is not merely clearing the examinations. It will also throw open the doors of marriage for me," he said.
When asked which girl would he like to marry if he clears the examinations next year, Shiv Charan said, "Only a girl of below 30 years of age would be my wife".
He has no regrets about the odds he faces every year when he appears for examinations.
"Sometimes invigilators throw me out of examination halls on the pretext that I am the guardian of a student. Whenever I go to the exam centre people converge in hordes to see me," he said.