What really goes on in an all-boys school? Ajay Jain’s memoir Charlie’s Boys answers — with laughter, nostalgia, and more truth than anyone expects.

Ajay Jain, author and founder of Delhi’s Kunzum bookstore, presents his memoir about 13 years at St. Columba’s School in Central Delhi, from 1975 to 1988. In this talk, he explains the book was never just about going down memory lane but about asking where he came from, what shaped him, and where he still wants to go. His central argument: the older we get, the more we value nostalgia — and the more we realise the school years we resented were quietly building everything about us.

Jain evokes the close-knit world of Delhi’s single-sex school ecosystem, the lifelong brotherhoods forged between KG and Class 12, and the values — selflessness, service, putting society first — that the missionary institution quietly installed. The historical backdrop runs deep: the 1975 Emergency, the 1982 Asian Games that physically built modern Delhi, and the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, all witnessed from school terraces and corridors.

Punctuated by riotous anecdotes — a shoe flying out of a window and hitting the feared biology teacher, a Camper Cola spit-prank between classmates, a father threatening a teacher with kidnapping charges — Charlie’s Boys is, by Jain’s own guarantee, certain to make you smile. And if it doesn’t, he says, sell it back.

About the Speaker:
Ajay Jain is a writer, photographer, and traveller. He has written sixteen books across genres including travel, business, fiction and memoir. He also runs Kunzum, an independent bookstore in New Delhi. He holds degrees in mechanical engineering, business management and journalism.