the principal of the school. Not the bursar. He was an irascible old bachelor. With an impressive collection of canes in his armoury. It was absolutely forbidden for a student to go to his house. For any reason whatsoever. And he hated being disturbed in the evenings because that’s when he usually rested.
The unsuspecting Roy faced the full wrath of our principal that day. He never forgave us for it.
But it had the effect of breaking the ice. Soon Roy began to hang out with us. Both the girls loved him. Even though he was initially pretty shy with them. Sara told me she found him really cute. Needless to say, that didn’t endear him to me.
However, it was difficult not to like Roy. There was something about him. He was serious yet funny. Quiet but warm. Studious and sporty in equal measure. Joining a new school mid-session isn’t easy. But he quickly came to be highly regarded both by students and teachers.
Even the principal would nod and give Roy a half-smile whenever they passed each other. It was a display of great affection by his standards. He generally just glared at students. Their first meeting was obviously a thing of the past.
Roy had laughed as heartily as the rest of us while describing Johnny Boy’s face after being roused from his siesta by the loud knocking. And how he had turned purple with rage when Roy asked innocently if he could find him a place to spend the night. We roared with delight at the thought of the old man assuming that he was being asked by a student for permission to stay in his house.
It was obvious that Roy had never had any real friends before. He told us about his broken family. The beatings by his stepmother. When his grandmother died soon after, something had switched off inside him. It was almost as if he had been waiting for that moment to finally renounce all familial ties and memories. The festering wound in his heart had stopped bleeding at last. Leaving behind a permanent and angry scar.
We all felt sympathetic towards Roy. Even though he didn’t really want our sympathy. I recognised that some cold, dark currents ran deep within him. Which he generally kept well hidden away.
Meanwhile, Sara developed an intense crush on Roy.
It became a fixation with her. And preyed on her mind all the time. She confided only in me. I had to listen bitterly as she went on and on about him.
Sara had always been popular with the boys. She rarely had difficulty in hooking up with anyone she took a fancy to. It was different with Roy. She did not want to reveal her feelings to him. Or make any overt advance for fear of being rejected. Though she never told me so, I suspected that she had somehow tested the waters already. And learnt that Roy did not feel the same way about her.
Roy was a strange one. Sara was by no means the only girl in school infatuated with him. Yet he showed no interest in any of them. Here I was, starving for female attention. Ready to jump any girl who beckoned. Except that none did. And there was Roy. Pushing away all the girls who fell over themselves in vying for his attention. It was frustrating. And I never tired of telling him so.
He would only laugh. ‘Neel, I don’t understand why you say no girl ever likes you. You’re a little weird but there’s no other problem, right? I’m sure there must be someone out there whom you could go out with.’
I would retort, ‘Screw you, Roy. Forget me, what about you? Word on campus is that since you don’t seem to like any of the girls, Biswas is getting very interested in you.’ Mr Biswas was our effeminate Physics teacher. He was very touchy-feely with the boys.
Rachel would keep telling Roy to be more like Omar. And Omar to be more like Roy. It was a good point. Omar was a menace to female innocence across four academic batches. In stark contrast to Roy’s indifference to the opposite sex.
Roy would protest, ‘Why the hell don’t you guys leave me alone? I can manage very well without a girlfriend,
The unsuspecting Roy faced the full wrath of our principal that day. He never forgave us for it.
But it had the effect of breaking the ice. Soon Roy began to hang out with us. Both the girls loved him. Even though he was initially pretty shy with them. Sara told me she found him really cute. Needless to say, that didn’t endear him to me.
However, it was difficult not to like Roy. There was something about him. He was serious yet funny. Quiet but warm. Studious and sporty in equal measure. Joining a new school mid-session isn’t easy. But he quickly came to be highly regarded both by students and teachers.
Even the principal would nod and give Roy a half-smile whenever they passed each other. It was a display of great affection by his standards. He generally just glared at students. Their first meeting was obviously a thing of the past.
Roy had laughed as heartily as the rest of us while describing Johnny Boy’s face after being roused from his siesta by the loud knocking. And how he had turned purple with rage when Roy asked innocently if he could find him a place to spend the night. We roared with delight at the thought of the old man assuming that he was being asked by a student for permission to stay in his house.
It was obvious that Roy had never had any real friends before. He told us about his broken family. The beatings by his stepmother. When his grandmother died soon after, something had switched off inside him. It was almost as if he had been waiting for that moment to finally renounce all familial ties and memories. The festering wound in his heart had stopped bleeding at last. Leaving behind a permanent and angry scar.
We all felt sympathetic towards Roy. Even though he didn’t really want our sympathy. I recognised that some cold, dark currents ran deep within him. Which he generally kept well hidden away.
Meanwhile, Sara developed an intense crush on Roy.
It became a fixation with her. And preyed on her mind all the time. She confided only in me. I had to listen bitterly as she went on and on about him.
Sara had always been popular with the boys. She rarely had difficulty in hooking up with anyone she took a fancy to. It was different with Roy. She did not want to reveal her feelings to him. Or make any overt advance for fear of being rejected. Though she never told me so, I suspected that she had somehow tested the waters already. And learnt that Roy did not feel the same way about her.
Roy was a strange one. Sara was by no means the only girl in school infatuated with him. Yet he showed no interest in any of them. Here I was, starving for female attention. Ready to jump any girl who beckoned. Except that none did. And there was Roy. Pushing away all the girls who fell over themselves in vying for his attention. It was frustrating. And I never tired of telling him so.
He would only laugh. ‘Neel, I don’t understand why you say no girl ever likes you. You’re a little weird but there’s no other problem, right? I’m sure there must be someone out there whom you could go out with.’
I would retort, ‘Screw you, Roy. Forget me, what about you? Word on campus is that since you don’t seem to like any of the girls, Biswas is getting very interested in you.’ Mr Biswas was our effeminate Physics teacher. He was very touchy-feely with the boys.
Rachel would keep telling Roy to be more like Omar. And Omar to be more like Roy. It was a good point. Omar was a menace to female innocence across four academic batches. In stark contrast to Roy’s indifference to the opposite sex.
Roy would protest, ‘Why the hell don’t you guys leave me alone? I can manage very well without a girlfriend,
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