NEET Re-Exam Preparations Shift to Telegram Channels in Kota

It was my second day in Kota. There were still a few days to go before a temporary ban on Telegram was announced, but the platform was already at the centre of discussions among students preparing for the June 21 NEET re-exam. As students came out of coaching institutes, preparations for the re-test had reached its final stages. The crowds in classrooms had started thinning. Most students were attending only selective revision sessions, and were spending the rest of their time in libraries, hostels, cafes, and rented rooms, where studies had become the second name of life. But behind this routine, something had changed. The conversations that should have been about biology diagrams, mock tests, and possible cut-offs were getting repeated on Telegram channels. Passing through one of Kota's busiest student hubs was not like entering a city, but like keeping notes in a huge academic township. Students were also looking at physics and mathematics in the middle of each revision.