Girl notches 89% despite mom's death

MUMBAI: Nilima Tiwari (16) lost her mother just 12 days before her board exams in a freak accident - she died of burns after the curtains in her home caught fire. And yet, the gritty teenager managed to score 89.3% in her Class X exams.
She said, "I didn't plan to skip my exams after I lost my mother and studied normally along with a friend. I never followed any timetable and studied whichever subjects I felt like studying at that moment."
Nilima, though, added that at times, she had trouble concentrating as she missed her mother."But I studied for four hours a day before the exams with regular intervals. I also kept myself busy solving previous year's question papers."
Nilima, who now lives with her father and sister, said it was their support that saw her through. "My father and sister have really been supportive, and so were my school teachers. I was deliberately sent to my friend's place so that I could concentrate on studies. I stayed there for most part as there were relatives visiting my house all the time."
Nilima plans to be an architect and is preparing for National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) entrance exam. Her father is a businessman and mother was a housewife.