He dreamed of Bollywood, possessed an “almost unreal” imagination and could draft entire film scripts in a matter of hours. But behind the creative brilliance of a Class 10 student at St Columba’s School lay a struggle with academic pressure that, his friends believe, went tragically unseen.
The 15-year-old, who died by suicide on November 18, is remembered by his classmates as a multifaceted and beloved peer. In an account cited by The Indian Express, a close friend described the boy as a talented, funny and popular student who loved dancing and acting above all.
“He was very funny, too. The whole class was friends with him,” the friend stated. “His imagination was so good it was almost unreal… He could write whole movies in a span of a few hours.” Their shared ambition, the friend revealed, was to move to Mumbai after college and attempt to build a career in the film industry. “But he loved acting the most,” he added.
The friend acknowledged he was aware that teachers had been targeting the boy over his low marks. However, he confessed he had not realised the profound depth of his friend’s distress. Haunted by the events, he expressed a poignant regret, as quoted by The Indian Express, “I did not go to school on Tuesday, the day he died… I think if I was there, I may have succeeded in talking him out of it. I so regret having been absent that day.”
As protests unfolded outside the school on Thursday, the conversation among former students highlighted a stark divide in their experiences of the institution’s disciplinary culture.
One alumnus from the class of 2024, who identified himself as Umar, reportedly expressed shock at the tragedy but questioned the direct blame being placed on teachers. He said that the teachers were strict but their disciplinary measures typically extended only to threats of calling parents or requiring them to sign a note.
Umar stated that he and his peers were more fearful of their parents' reaction than of the teachers, adding that while staff would reprimand students for poor behaviour, they never did so over academic performance.
This perspective was directly challenged by another former pupil, 19-year-old Christian Robert. He reportedly said that he left St Columba’s in Class 11 and completed his education through open schooling, alleging that a student’s academic performance dictated their treatment.
Robert offered a starkly different account, asserting that those without complaints had been high performers, while students like himself who fared poorly in examinations understood the true nature of the treatment they received. He claimed that there was a marked difference in how teachers interacted with the two groups, alleging an environment of segregation and humiliation.
Robert stated that teachers made poorer-performing students sit apart from their classmates and constantly compared them unfavourably. He also recounted one particularly painful memory where a teacher told him she pitied his parents for having a son like him.
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