And Monday, the day the results were declared, was a red-letter day for him, his family and friends as they celebrated Saurabh's success. He is the first in the city to have achieved this feat.

``I knew that I was going to make it big, probably in the first 10 of the state, but topping the entire state came as a pleasant surprise,'' a visibly excited Saurabh said. Sitting beside his proud parents, both of whom are medical practitioners, the 18-year-old declared, ``I want to be a doctor.''Topping exams seems to be a habit with this brilliant student, who came tenth in the city in the SSC examinations. In school he was always among the first three.

Born in the city on May 9, 1980, Saurabh did his schooling at the C C Shah Sarvajanik High School, also called the Experimental High School, until class VII, after which he shifted to the St Xaviers High School, where he completed his SSC. Saurabh then shifted back to the Experimental High School.

The only child of Dr Dilip D Mehta, a cardiologist, and Dr Meena D Mehta, a gynaecologist, Saurabh studied in the English medium only till class II, and then switched over to the Gujarati medium. ``Selecting a medium was a big dilemma for us right from the beginning. We were not very sure whether to enrol him in the English or the Gujarati medium,'' said his father, adding proudly that Saurabh had buried the myth that English medium students were brighter and better equipped to tackle subjects.

Incidentally, Saurabh is not the conventional ``good student'' who sits with his nose buried in books the whole day. He plays cricket and tennis. ``And though he got spectacles when he was in standard VIII, it was not because of too much studying, but because he watched too much television and played computer games,'' says his mother, adding that Saurabh started taking tuitions only after standard X.

``A major credit of my success goes to Hemant Modi, my physics teacher, who not only made the subject interesting, but also made it seem easy,'' Saurabh says.

He scored 98 out of 100 in physics, 84 out of 100 in English, 47 out of 150 in maths, 133 out of 150 in chemistry, 142 out of 150 in biology, 87 out of 100 in Sanskrit; a total of 607 out of 650, or 93.98 per cent.

Saurabh plans to join the B J Medical College in Ahmedabad, though his father doesn't want him to study medicine. ``But the decision is his and anything is fine with me,'' he says.

Saurabh was not the only one to do the city proud today; Surat students secured the fourth and eighth positions in the State merit list as well.Sanjay Govardhanbhai Vaghani, who was fourth, is a student of Saraswati Vidyalaya. His attitude to exams is very different from Saurabh's, though like the State topper, he, too, wants to take up medicine. Sanjay says he did not watch a single film during the entire year; nor does he watch television. He says he studied for 12 to 15 hours everyday, throughout the year.

Vaishnavi Chaityankumar Laiwala, who was eighth in the State, also topped the State in Science subjects, scoring a whopping 444 out of 450 in theory. She was the state topper in SSC in 1996.

``I did not concentrate too much on the languages but I was sure I would top the State in Science,'' beams Vaishnavi, who feels a little more effort would have helped her top the State list for the second time in a row. She secured 81 in Sanskrit, which accounted for her eighth position.

Vaishnavi wishes to take up a career in gynaecology, but says she would like to remain in Surat and take admission in the Government Medical College here.