When 18-year-old Sarthak Sidhant started making national headlines, many people saw a fearless teenager challenging a powerful system. What many people did not see, however, was his mother’s reaction. While the country was applauding her son, she was worried.In a recent interview with mo.of.everything, Sarthak opened up about how the sudden attention affected his family. The interviewer brought up a conversation Sarthak had with Rahul Gandhi, where his mother appeared visibly emotional while sitting beside him. That emotion, Sarthak explained, came from a place every parent would recognise.
10 Jun 2026 | 14:36
What is the funniest thing your child has ever said during an argument?
“At first she was worried about me. She was very overwhelmed actually. She wanted me to stop going to the media houses and stop giving interviews,” he said. That one sentence holds a tension parents have always known. Parents want safety. Children, especially teenagers, want purpose. When children are small, protecting them feels simple enough. You hold their hand, keep them away from harm, make calls on their behalf. But as they grow, the risks get harder to see and the decisions get harder to make.
Most parents would have resonated with Sarthak’s mother
At 18, Sarthak was not navigating ordinary teenage trouble. He was suddenly at the centre of a national conversation: his name all over social media, news channels and public forums. For his mother, that kind of visibility must have felt alarming. Most parents would have felt the same. Public attention brings scrutiny. A parent’s natural instinct is usually to shield their child from anything that could potentially hurt them. Sarthak revealed that it was eventually one of his mother’s friends who helped her understand the situation differently and encouraged her to support his decision to continue speaking publicly. “But her friend convinced her and explained the situation,” he shared.
Sarthak lost his father two years ago
That detail is small but it matters. Parenting is not always about having the right answer ready. Sometimes it is about sitting with uncertainty, leaning on others and slowly learning to trust what your child knows about themselves. What gives Sarthak’s story even more weight is what sits quietly behind it. Two years ago, while he was giving his Class 10 board exams, he lost his father. That kind of loss, at that age, during one of the most pressured moments of school life, would have broken many people’s stride. But Sarthak kept going.During the interview, he was asked what his father’s reaction would have been, seeing his son receive this kind of attention across the country. It is the sort of question that could have pulled out something dramatic. Instead, Sarthak answered quietly and honestly. “There are a lot of moments I thought, my mother would have thought that too.” There is something very human in that answer. Anyone who has lost a parent knows how certain moments carry a strange absence. Achievements and unexpected recognition can bring real pride, but they also bring questions. What would they have said? Would they have been proud?
Big takeaway for the parents
For parents reading this, the biggest takeaway here is probably not about activism or media attention. It is about that difficult line between protecting your child and letting them become who they are meant to be. Every parent hopes to raise someone independent, confident and capable of making a difference. But when that independence actually shows up, it can feel unsettling rather than reassuring. Sometimes it means watching your child take a path you never planned for them. Sometimes it means letting them walk into situations that make you uncomfortable. And sometimes it means doing what Sarthak’s mother eventually did: choosing trust over fear.Because raising children was never only about keeping them safe. It is also about giving them the courage to stand up for what they believe in, even when the world outside feels uncertain.
Why is Sarthak Sidhant in the headlines?
Sarthak Sidhant is an 18-year-old student from Ranchi who exposed alleged irregularities in CBSE’s evaluation and tendering process. It started when he requested his own answer sheets. He then analysed digital records, studied tender documents, and used coding and web scraping to uncover discrepancies in how CBSE awarded contracts for its On-Screen Marking system: the process used to evaluate board exam papers digitally. He published his findings in a blog post that went viral. Outside of this, Sarthak is a coder, roboticist, and civic-tech builder. He has created platforms to help communities track potholes and garbage dumps in their neighbourhoods.