“St Columba’s opened its doors on January 7, 1941. The records show thirty boys showed up: five Catholics, eighteen Hindus, eight Muslims and one Sikh, conspicuous in his purple turban,” writes Columba’s alumnus Ajay Jain, in his book, Charlie’s Boys (Harper Collins).
The book, written in the style of a personal diary, recollects Jain’s school days in the 1980s — and the ways those moments shaped him and the boys who grew up alongside him.
Before digging into the mischief and memories of the old days, Jain explains how he ended up at Columba’s — a prestigious school attended by many who went on to be notable figures of Indian politics such as Sanjay Gandhi, Derek O’Brein, Rahul Gandhi, former Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, among others.
For Jain’s father — a chief engineer at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi, at that time — “pursuing quality education was non-negotiable”, the author says in the book. He sent his son to St Columba’s; for the daughter, it was the neighbouring Convent of Jesus and Mary School. Jain writes that he even had to do kindergarten twice because “Columba’s only admitted those over five,” and he wasn’t old enough the first time.
Mischief and milestones
Jain penned Charlie’s Boys simply to look back on the old days. Additionally, to write the book, was also to understand how the values and systems of that time compare with the rapid changes of today.
The book is full of light, anecdotal stories from his school days. He recounts memories of fretting over a Tuesday haircut considered inauspicious by his mother after a teacher’s warning; buying orange ice lollies for 50 paise; playing with rubber lizards; sharing photography classes with Rahul Gandhi; and witnessing Shah Rukh Khan win the ‘Sword of Honour,’ awarded to students excelling in both academics and extracurricular activities — and many other moments.
Not just the carefree schooldays, the author also highlights the turbulent history of his time — the Emergency of 1975, politician Jayaprakash Narayan’s passing, former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the 1984 Sikh riots, and the Air India Flight 182 bombing that claimed all 329 lives on board, among others.
Why ‘Charlie’s Boys’?
Jain says he chose the title ‘Charlie’s Boys’ for a reason he wants readers to discover themselves. “I will leave it to the readers to find out who Charlie is. That’s a small spoiler I don’t want to give away,” he says, in a humorous tone.
Last year when Jain visited St Columba’s — first for an alumni meeting and then for the memorial service of one of the headmasters, Eric D’Souza — the author was filled with emotions that he had to put down on paper.
“When I entered the school, I felt overwhelmed. It looked exactly the same. I realised that while we leave school, the school never really leaves us,” he remarks. That moment, he adds, compelled him to finally sit down and write. “Whatever came to mind, I started jotting it down in longhand.”
‘Stay a student at heart’
The book documents several years of the author’s school life, which meant he had to cherry-pick carefully what to include.“Balance,” he adds, was what he was looking for. “I didn’t want too much of something or too little. So there’s a bit about scouts, classrooms, teachers, nicknames, punishments — everything that made up school life,” Jain tells TMS. Even though Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan was his school contemporary and the book includes a few anecdotes about him, Jain says he deliberately avoided letting the narrative revolve around a celebrity. “Otherwise it would become a book about Shah Rukh Khan and not about the school.”
Speaking about the recent case of the 16-year-old Class X student from his old school— who died by suicide after allegedly facing harassment by teachers — Jain calls the incident “deeply sad and tragic,” something that “should never happen to anyone.” As an alumnus, he says the conversation must go beyond a single school and address the bigger crisis of young people struggling with mental health.
“Every life lost is a tragedy,” he says, “and it’s something we all need to reflect on together as a society.”
Rounding off the conversation, Jain says that school is one part of life that shapes who we become. He believes it’s important to hold on to a sense of youth and curiosity, to never stop being a student at heart. “Go out there, have fun,” he adds, “but don’t lose the urge to make the world a better place.”