Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

For Sama­ra Sid­hooram, top­ping the Fe­lic­i­ty SDMS Hin­du School in the 2026 Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tion is not the end of her jour­ney—it is the first step to­wards ful­fill­ing a dream in­spired by some­one very close to her.

The young stu­dent earned a com­pos­ite score of 249.201, se­cur­ing place­ment at Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege, her first-choice school. Now, like her el­der sis­ter, Dr Brit­tney Sid­hooram, Sama­ra hopes to one day wear a white coat and serve as a med­ical doc­tor.

The sis­ters share more than just aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess. Dr Brit­tney Sid­hooram al­so at­tend­ed Fe­lic­i­ty SDMS Hin­du School and re­turned to her al­ma mater on June 25 to de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress at the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny—an event that al­so cel­e­brat­ed Sama­ra’s achieve­ments.

Re­flect­ing on the in­flu­ence her sis­ter has had on her life, Sama­ra said she has al­ways re­gard­ed Brit­tney as both a role mod­el and a source of in­spi­ra­tion.

“I have al­ways looked up to my el­der sis­ter whose ded­i­ca­tion and achieve­ments have in­spired me to work hard and aim high,” she said.

As she pre­pares to be­gin sec­ondary school, Sama­ra is al­so en­cour­ag­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of SEA stu­dents to main­tain a healthy bal­ance be­tween aca­d­e­mics and per­son­al de­vel­op­ment.

She ad­vised stu­dents en­ter­ing the SEA pro­gramme to re­main fo­cused on their stud­ies while al­so tak­ing part in ex­tracur­ric­u­lar ac­tiv­i­ties, de­scrib­ing them as an im­por­tant way to re­lax and main­tain bal­ance dur­ing the de­mand­ing school years.

Be­hind the sis­ters’ achieve­ments stand proud par­ents who say their daugh­ters’ suc­cess has been built on years of sac­ri­fice, dis­ci­pline and faith.

Their fa­ther, Sat­nar­ine Sid­hooram, 52, a bar­ber, and moth­er, Nan­da Sid­hooram, a home­mak­er, said watch­ing both daugh­ters achieve their goals has been among the great­est bless­ings of their lives.

“Hav­ing two suc­cess­ful daugh­ters is one of the great­est bless­ings and proud­est ac­com­plish­ments of our lives,” they said.

“Watch­ing one achieve her dream of be­com­ing a doc­tor and the oth­er ex­cel by top­ping her pri­ma­ry school in the SEA ex­am­i­na­tions fills our hearts with in­de­scrib­able joy and grat­i­tude.”

The cou­ple said their daugh­ters’ ac­com­plish­ments did not come eas­i­ly but were the re­sult of years of hard work, dis­ci­pline, per­se­ver­ance and count­less sac­ri­fices.

“As par­ents, we have learned that sup­port­ing your chil­dren means be­liev­ing in them even when the jour­ney is dif­fi­cult, en­cour­ag­ing them through every set­back, cel­e­brat­ing every small vic­to­ry, and re­mind­ing them that with de­ter­mi­na­tion, no dream is be­yond reach,” they said.

The fam­i­ly cred­its its un­wa­ver­ing Hin­du faith as the cor­ner­stone of its suc­cess.

“Above all, our fam­i­ly’s foun­da­tion has al­ways been faith in God. Through every chal­lenge, every late night of study­ing, every mo­ment of doubt, and every tri­umph, we trust­ed in His guid­ance and re­mained de­vot­ed in prayer.”

They added that they be­lieve re­mark­able things can hap­pen when hard work is com­bined with stead­fast faith.