St. Merry School

St. Merry School is situated right in the middle of Gurhai Mandi in the Taj Ganj area of Agra. If you know Agra, you know how crowded it gets around here. There are shops everywhere and the streets are always full of people buying vegetables or household stuff. We are just a short walk from where the tourists go to see the monuments, but our corner feels very different. It’s more of a local vibe. The building is an old one, with high ceilings and heavy wooden doors that sometimes creak when the wind blows through the halls. We don’t have much space for a big playground, so the kids mostly play in the courtyard. It gets quite loud during the morning assembly because the sound bounces off the walls. I usually arrive early to open the main gate and see the milkmen passing by with their cans. The air smells like spices and tea from the nearby stalls. Our classrooms are basic, just desks, chairs, and blackboards. We don’t use much technology; we prefer the old way of writing things down in notebooks. The staff stays late often to plan lessons or talk about how to handle the rowdy batches of older boys. It is a bit of a squeeze when everyone is in the building at once, but we make it work somehow. It’s been this way for years, and we just keep going day by day, making sure the kids learn what they need.