“From Farrokh to Freddie: A Boarding School Friend’s Heartwarming Memories of the Humble Boy Who Became a Rock Legend”

“Freddie and I were in school together. I only know him as Farrokh, later as Fred Bulsara, not Freddie Mercury. He was a really friendly and good-natured chap. We spent our holidays in Mumbai, and he came to my place very often. At school, nobody teased him anymore than they teased anybody else.

We were a great group of friends, getting up to mischief, bunking class and sneaking out to Tableland (a big plateau close to our school). The food was atrocious and the teachers very strict. Corporal punishment was quite normal, but that was the case in most places.

Freddie was extremely generous. Once he received a box of fancy chocolates, a rare treat. Normally the rule was that we offered all our friends some but kept the most for ourselves. But Freddie shared these very special chocolates with everyone, and gave me a couple more for my sister. He was always like that.

Freddie was the peace-maker. He hated it when anybody in our group fought and always tried to get everybody to be friends again. He’d joke around until we had to laugh and give up. One thing about Freddie, he loved to win! Whether at sports or studies, he loved collecting his trophies and certificates. And he loved his mother very much. We all wrote letters home, just wrote a few lines; we were fine, were they fine, we missed them, etc., but Freddie always wrote his mother long letters telling her in detail about everything that was going on. He also kept all her letters to him very carefully. They shared a very strong bond.

After Grade 11, he moved full time with his aunt in Mumbai and I lost touch with him. I never heard from Freddie again until one time I was in London in 1974 and ran into him at a restaurant. A man detached himself from a small group nearby, and came up to me and asked if I was ‘X’. It was Freddie. I didn’t recognise him at all – he looked completely different from the school-boy Freddie.

Naturally once he said he was Freddie Bulsara, I was delighted and we chatted for a few minutes. With me he was still Fred Bulsara, he never once mentioned who he became, and I had no idea either. We chatted about our families, school and that was it. Freddie asked about my family, catching up on old times a bit. And then he left with his friends.

The funny thing about this is that I had absolutely no clue that Freddie Bulsara WAS Freddie Mercury. He never, ever mentioned the Mercury name that day either. I was not into rock music, and this was way before the internet. I was just happy to meet up with a good friend from school. When I asked for the check, the waiter told him Freddie had paid my bill, I was pleasantly surprised.

Few months later, when I went to a record store to buy some albums, I saw Freddie’s face on an album cover. Only after asking the clerk at the store did I realise that my good old school friend was now the rock star Freddie Mercury! He still had the same old innocent Bulsara eyes.

A couple of years after his passing, I went to India for a visit, a couple of us got together and toasted our friend Farrokh Bulsara’.”

This story was shared by Noorie (a member of Queenzone whose uncle was a good friend of Freddie’s from boarding school. Noorie has shared several lovely memories of her uncle and Freddie.)

Freddie always so humbled and kind! He may have become a rock star but his heart stayed the same.