Some people are born toppers. Straight A's, certificates on the wall, trophies stacked so high they could touch the ceiling. And then… there's Ekansh.
Sixteen years old. Tall, kinda skinny. Face that no one really notices in a crowd—unless he's doing something stupid. Which, according to his friends, was pretty often.
He wasn't dumb. If anything, Ekansh had this strange talent. On the rare days he sat down to study—actually study—he could pull off marks that made even the class toppers look over their shoulders, wondering, "Where did this guy come from?" But those days were rare. Like, once-in-a-blue-moon rare. Most of the time, he wasn't anywhere near his books.
He liked being outside more. Running full speed down a football field, swimming laps until his lungs burned, bouncing a basketball like it was an extension of himself. He was the guy who could play anything—football, basketball, swimming, table tennis. Good at all, great at none. Not yet, anyway. No medals hung on his wall. No trophies collected dust in his room. Just dreams. Big, messy, impossible-looking dreams.
Dreams of millions.Startups.Building something no one had ever seen before.
But here's the thing: dreams like that? They don't exactly impress school principals. Or teachers. Or parents, for that matter.
In class, Ekansh usually sat in the back row. Hoodie up. Head down. Doodling ideas in his notebook when he was supposed to be balancing accounts or figuring out economics graphs. Half the time, he wasn't even sure why he'd chosen commerce. Maybe because it sounded like the stream where "business" people went, and that's all he ever wanted—to make something big. To build his own world.
But now?It was 2024. Eleven months into Class 11.And he was failing. Like, really failing.
Accounts? Disaster.Economics? Don't ask.Business studies? Barely holding on.And the worst part?His parents didn't know.
They still thought their son was doing "okay." That he was "managing." They smiled when they talked about him to relatives. "Ekansh is focused," they said. "He's doing well."Ekansh let them believe it. He couldn't bring himself to break their hearts.Not yet.
Because somewhere deep inside him—buried under all the guilt, pressure, and late-night overthinking—there was this belief:He wasn't done yet.He wasn't going to be the guy who "almost made it."He was going to be the guy who rewrote the whole story.
He just didn't know how.Not yet.
A Little Glimpse of His Past...
9th and 10th grade? Those were the golden days. Not academically—he barely scraped by most of his exams—but in life. Friends, laughter, skipping tuitions to hit the court or ride around the city on bikes, living like nothing could touch them.His 10th board results came in at around 60%. Respectable for a kid who never opened his books. And he was happy. Happy because he was moving forward.But when 11th started in 2024?Everything changed.
Fewer friends. More silence. Marks that dropped lower and lower until even the teachers stopped asking him questions in class.And for a kid who wanted to change the world…That silence was loud.
This is where Ekansh stood.June 2025.A skinny 16-year-old with fire in his chest and chaos in his head.He was about to turn 17.And he knew one thing for sure.
It was time to get serious.Really serious.
Because 12th grade was coming, and it wasn't just school anymore.It was war.
Author's Note
This isn't a story about a genius who always had it together.This is about Ekansh.A kid who's messed up, made mistakes, lied when he should've told the truth, and let himself fall behind.But he's not done.He's the kind of guy who refuses to stay down.And if you've ever felt like you're too far behind to catch up, maybe you'll see a bit of yourself in him.
We're just getting started.