The Boy Who Was Never There: An Outlook Reader Recounts Childhood Memory of Mental Illness

‘Roll No. 1?’

‘Present, Ma’am.’

‘Roll No. 2?’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’

‘Roll No. 3?’

Silence.

The teacher repeated the number, but before she could finish, several students blurted out, ‘Ma’am, Deep Singh has been kidnapped!’

The words sent a chill through her. Somehow, she kept teaching, but her mind was elsewhere. After the bell rang, she hurried to the principal’s office. He looked just as surprised—no such report had reached him.

That afternoon, curiosity and concern led her to Deep’s home. There, his parents told her an alarming story: a few days earlier, while Deep was playing in the backyard, a group of men had grabbed him, covered his face, and dragged him to a shabby hut. They changed his clothes, shoved him into a car, and drove away.

But luck was on his side. As they were leaving the town, the car broke down. While the men were busy repairing it, Deep slipped out quietly and ran for his life. When he reached near his school, a newspaper seller recognised him and escorted him home.

Everyone believed the tale. Deep came from a wealthy family, and such things did happen in the world.

A month later, he returned to school, smiling and healthy. He passed his final exams and was promoted to Class 5.

But then… It happened again.

One morning during assembly, whispers spread like wildfire: ‘Deep is missing. Kidnapped again!’

This time, the CCTV footage showed something strange — Deep walking into the school premises, then turning around and leaving.

The principal called his parents. Soon, the police were involved. Around the same time, his mother noticed her mobile phone missing. The police tracked its signal and found him 20 km away from his hometown.

A shopkeeper said she had seen him walking down the road, tearing pages from his books. She had given him biscuits and kept him at her stall until the police and his father arrived.

When questioned, Deep said, ‘I’m scared of teachers.’ The police, who knew the school’s warm reputation, weren’t convinced. At home, his mother asked which teacher frightened him. He smiled and said, ‘I love my teachers. I just casually told the police.

The case baffled everyone. Two disappearances. Two rescues. Two unbelievable stories.

It was only after his parents took him to a psychologist that the truth came out. Deep wasn’t kidnapped at all—not the first time, not the second. He was a bright, well-behaved boy… but with a peculiar mental disorder.

The trigger? Endless hours of watching CID and thriller shows. The crime stories had lodged themselves deep in his imagination, twisting reality and fantasy until he could no longer separate the two.

Now, he doesn’t watch crime shows. He goes to school regularly and continues treatment.

Sometimes, the most puzzling mysteries don’t involve criminals at all — they begin in the human mind.