Boystruggles Stories

Raunak was never the boy people noticed. Not in class. Not on the playground. Not in conversations. He was just... there. Growing up in an Indian household, where marks define worth and silence is mistaken for obedience, Raunak learns early how to shrink himself into expectations. A mother he never got to know, a father who tries but fails to understand, and a world that constantly reminds him he is not enough. So he changes. Bit by bit. Year by year. Until one day, Raunak becomes everything society ever wanted him to be. Confident. Successful. Acceptable. But somewhere in that journey... he loses the only person who truly needed him - his younger self. This is not a story of success. This is a story of what it costs. scene:School PTM where father hears complaints. doesn't scold, but says: "Try harder beta... duniya easy nahi hai." but what will happen when he will realise "I didn't grow... I replaced myself."

This is a complete story based on a real-life experience (maybe around 70%-75% true). After finishing the book, for some reason, I had to take it down (the reason would be explained in the second book, coming up). For those of you who read, but didn't have a chance to finish reading the story when I pulled it down, I am truly sorry. A number of you contacted me. So, now, I am putting this up again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was well known in my school, not only for my apparent good looks, but for the fact that my face appeared in so many school events and activities. Prior to today, I was a happy single boy of seventeen years with a dazzling identity and a matching sparkling track record. Those eyes, that smile, the flexes on his face that it caused - just about everything about his face -captivated me since I first noticed him sitting on the second row in the school auditorium. He had the brightest of smiles. The most endearing aura enveloped his being. The simple gestures he made as he was sitting had both a calming effect and one that caused some kind of rage within me. I knew right then that this boy was going to be the end of me.