GADAG: Hooked on to fighting battles on PUBG, a first PU student has now left nursing scars in real life.
Varun (name changed) has failed in his first year pre-university exam after he wrote only about ‘how to play PUBG game’ in the Economics answer sheet.
He had secured distinction in his SSLC exam last year but lost track of his studies this year after getting addicted to the online mobile game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Varun admits that he was so engrossed in the game that he forgot that exams were around the corner. Though his parents saw him busy on the mobile phone all the time, he dispelled their doubts, saying he was chatting with friends.
“I was studious, but got attracted towards PUBG as it was entertaining, and soon got addicted to it. Sometimes I even bunked classes to play the game and sat in the nearby garden,” Varun told TNIE. He realised about the impending exams just 15 days before they started. Though he then stopped playing PUBG, he failed to concentrate on studies.
“I got angry with myself and wrote about PUBG in the answer sheet. Now my parents have taken the mobile away, but the images of the game continue to linger in my mind. I realise how dangerous a game it is.”
Varun now has a chance to appear in the exam scheduled to be held in June. Varun’s father, who happens to be the principal of another college in Gadag, said, “We are really shocked over his failure
in exams.”
Parents take boy for counselling
Varun’s father rued that while he always advised students in his college and elsewhere to keep themselves away from mobile games such as Blue Whale Challenge and PUBG, it was his son who fell prey to such a game. He added that they did not doubt his activities he usually remained locked up in his room to study.
A teacher who evaluated Varun’s Economics paper said, “Usually students who do not know the answers write film songs or famous movie dialogues. But this boy has written everything about the game, starting from steps to download it to how to play it. He seems to have good mastery over the game. I brought the issue to the principal’s notice, and we summoned his parents and informed them about their son’s addiction.”
A teacher from the Commerce Department said, “The boy wants to become a Chartered Accountant. He has written very less in all the other subjects but managed to get pass marks. In Economics, however, he has written only about the game.”
The parents have taken him for counselling and are preparing him for PU II now.