Perfect sync: Twin top hats from Malkangiri district | Photo source: Special arrangement
Life often opens the wheel of coincidence- Sometimes, fate writes down such perfect symmetry that feels like fiction.
Take Dambaru Lenka and Daniel Lenka as examples. The twin brothers shared not only a birthday after a few minutes apart. This year, they also shared the spotlight – both scored 560 out of 600 points in the 2025 entrance exam, becoming the joint champion of Malkangiri in the southern Odisha region.
“Since young, living together, taking care of each other, sharing what they have barely. As parents, we have always hoped that they would stay intimate. Perhaps the almighty heard our prayers – both of them got the exact same grades and showed up on Malkangiri's high school certificate exam,” Mohan Lenka said. ”
Mr. Renka said he was glad that getting the same mark would allow them to choose the same university and stay together, thus alleviating his anxiety.
When twins are born, their parents are anxious about their health. Influenced by a curious belief, they gave them names from different beliefs – one Hindus and another Christian. “But we make sure both names start with the same letter so that they sit together in class and in exams,” he said.
Daniel and his brother Dambaru got a surprising 93.33% on the entrance exam, which exceeded their expectations. “As early on, our scores are usually similar, although never exactly the same,” Dambaru, a little older teenager, has been better in science, and I prefer math,” Dambaru said.
This year, Malkangiri, which borders Andhra Pradesh and chhattisgarh, performed well in the annual entrance exams. The region ranks 25th out of 30 regions in Odisha.
“We focused on mentoring students with the potential to excel in the Class X exams. In the first batch, we identified 76 such students, and later 210. School teachers were asked to spend extra time guiding them. As a result, 12 students from Malkangiri scored above 90% (A1 grade), including seven from government schools,” said Biswanath Sahu, former District Education Officer of Malkangiri, who played a key role in driving the district's academic progress.
Results of the X-Class Board Exam were announced Friday. This year, out of 519,728 students registered in all streams in Odisha, 510,925 were seen, while 491,912 passed, passing a 96.27% pass percentage.
Among the regular candidates, 1,812 students reached the coveted A1 level (above scores of 90%), followed by 12,200 in A2 (above 80%), 38,831 in B1 (above 70%) and 84,971 in B2 (above 70%) (above 60%).
publishing – May 3, 2025 08:59 pm ist
