NEW DELHI: The NEET PG exam was supposed to be a day of nerves, preparation and one final push towards a medical career for Tanvi Annamdevara(pic). Instead, she walked into the exam hall carrying a much heavier worry.
Her parents were still missing after the Kailash Yatra group they were travelling with was caught in the Nepal floods.
Tanvi appeared for the three-hour NEET PG 2026 examination on August 30. But for much of those three hours, she was fighting back tears.
“Out of the three-hour exam, one and a half hours, I have spent crying,” Tanvi said in an Instagram video, where she shared a picture of her inked thumb after the examination.
Her parents were missing during the exam
Tanvi’s parents, Venkatram Annamdevara and Anagha Annamdevara, were travelling with a Kailash Yatra group of 67 people when the group caught up in the floods in Nepal.
According to Tanvi’s earlier social media update, the family had not been able to contact anyone from the tour group or the organisation managing the pilgrimage.
The last known location of the group was around Nepal’s immigration centre and the Friendship Bridge.
With communication unavailable, Tanvi and her family were still waiting for information about the group and hoping that her parents would return safely.
Her father’s photograph made the exam harder
Inside the examination hall, another painful reminder was waiting for Tanvi.
Her photograph and admit card details appeared on the computer screen during the exam. Tanvi recognised the photograph immediately because her father had taken it.
“That photo was taken by my dad,” she said.
The moment made it harder to concentrate. Tanvi recalled struggling to read some of the questions as tears blurred her vision.
But she continued writing the examination.
“I just knew that my dad wants me to give this exam and I have to do it for him, I have to do it for my parents,” she said.
The missing curd-and-sugar ritual
For Tanvi, however, the hardest part was not necessarily the difficult questions or the pressure of a medical entrance exam.
It was the small routine that was missing before she entered the examination centre.
“More than the exam, the most difficult part was that before the exam, my mom would always give me curd and sugar,” she said.
That familiar gesture was absent because her mother was among those whose whereabouts remained unknown.
It was a simple ritual, but on a day already filled with anxiety, its absence became another reminder that her parents were not there.
She wiped away tears as she expressed hope that they would make it back home safely.
“They have to come,” she said. - The Statesman/ANN
