The end came after Saturday midnight, say the police, after studying the circumstantial evidence. In the evening, her father had accompanied Minal to see the results; he was also the one to console and support her when she broke down. That saw her through dinner, but who knows what overwhelmed her as darkness crept over the house?

In the morning, her mother found a bottle of insecticide lying next to the inert girl. They rushed her to SSG Hospital, where she was declared `brought dead'.

In retrospect, Minal could have been any one of the 78 per cent that failed to make the grade. In a class of 120 students, professors admit they can't build up one-to-one relationships. Faculty dean Bonny Pilo puts a face to her only because she joined Science, then switched to Home Science, before returning to her original choice. ``She was a good student'', he says.

The words come too late to instill confidence in a girl, who was clearly out of depth with her chosen combination of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics. According to a teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, she apparently opted for the subjects as she'd been told she'd need Maths in the computer course she was pursuing.

A former student of New Era School, Minal may also have found it difficult to cope with the English medium of instruction, according to a neighbour of the Parikhs. ``She studied in the Gujarati medium all her life'', she points out.

On Tuesday, the faculty that never became her own got together to pay homage to her tortured soul. Nearly 70 teachers and a handful of students -- perhaps another poignant reminder of Minal's isolation -- remembered the girl who will never walk the faculty corridors again. Minal leaves behind two brothers and her parents. And a shocked academia.