THOSE WERE THE DAYS

St Columba’s School in Delhi has received bad press lately. But for Ajay Jain, an alumnus, Charlie's Boys, his chronicle of his school days in the ’8Os, school was a place of memories, mischief, and just incidentally of classmates with famous names.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

Actor Shah Rukh Khan

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 time, 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, and Rahul Gandhi, and former Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, as well as Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, among others.

For Jain’s father, then a chief engineer at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi, “pursuing quality education was nonnegotiable”, the author says in the book. He sent his son, Ajay, 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