In India, academics matter more than anything else. Ever since childhood, children are brought up to excel in school and college, ingrained in their minds and hearts. While some can pursue this dream and make their parents proud, others unfortunately end up succumbing to the pressures of finance and fate.One such man is Ashok Bahar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who appeared in the NEET UG 2026 exam and caught everyone’s attention. The 71-year-old is a resident of Chandernagar in Alambagh and appeared for the medical entrance exam on May 3rd, 2026. Dressed in a kurta-pyjama, carrying a water bottle and a question paper in his hands, he drew the attention of many as he walked out of the examination centre after completing the paper.
Ashok Bahar: Power of a mother’s dream
Bahar had previously worked as a marketing head in IDPL and even went on to work with the Ministry of External Affairs, before taking retirement in 2000. He is also a former student of the University of Lucknow and holds LLB and MBA degrees, as per a Navbharat Times report.Despite studying law and business earlier, Bahar decided to pursue his long-time dream of becoming a doctor. His wife, Dr Manjul Bahar is also a doctor, a gynaecologist. But it was his mother’s wish and a promise made to her long ago that he wanted to fulfil by passing the exam. He told his mother that he would become a doctor, just like his father.As per reports, Bahar comes from a family of 20 doctors and aims to specialise in Hepatology. He dreamt of fighting the liver diseases he saw spreading like an epidemic. With the support of his wife, who taught him and shared her medical knowledge with him, he studied day and night to take a shot at a dream he had promised and wanted to live.
NEET paper leak : A broken dream
After he had successfully appeared at the exam he had been dreaming of giving for years, Ashok Bahar was excited to find out the results. However, just a week after the exam, the news broke that the paper had been leaked and the exam had been cancelled.As per reports, on May 2, an MBBS student from Rajasthan’s Sikar, currently studying in Kerala, received a PDF file with a “guess paper” from a friend in Sikar. He forwarded it to his father, who runs a hostel for coaching students in Sikar, suggesting it might help students prepare for their exams scheduled for May 3.While the father was late to share the papers with the students, he shared them with a chemistry teacher he knew. After comparing the contents with the actual paper, the teacher discovered that 45 out of the 108 chemistry questions matched exactly. When he contacted a biology teacher, they found that 90 out of 204 biology questions also matched.After being rejected by the police, the two men mailed the National Testing Agency (NTA), prompting the agency to take action. The NTA subsequently contacted the Intelligence Bureau and directed Rajasthan’s Special Operations Group (SOG) to investigate the matter on May 8. Investigators reportedly confirmed the sequence of events using the hostel owner’s mobile phone records and WhatsApp chats.Soon, NTA cancelled the exams and added that fresh dates for re-examination would be announced separately. What may have been a source of income for some, ended up shattering a 71-year-old’s attempt at realising his life-long dream.
