Sardar Patel Uni

Our place, Sardar Patel Uni, is situated in Kamalbaug Society, which is on Khodiyar Nagar Road in the Varachha area of Surat. Varachha is always humming with activity, mostly because of the diamond and textile work around here. We’re at number 75. It’s a residential society, so it doesn't feel like a cold institution. It’s more like a community space where we handle all the administrative stuff and student queries. The road outside can get pretty hectic with bikes and people moving about. We have a few rooms set up for our work, with stacks of papers and some old wooden desks. It’s not a grand university campus like you see in movies, but it serves the purpose for what we need to do here in Surat. Most of us living or working in Gujarat know how hot it gets, so the fans are always on full blast during the afternoon. We spend a lot of time talking to people who come in from the society or the nearby streets. It’s a local operation, very much tied to the Khodiyar Nagar neighborhood. We don’t use any complicated systems, just regular record-keeping and helping people out when they have questions about their studies or forms. It’s a bit cramped sometimes when too many people show up at once, but we manage. We just keep things moving along as best as we can without making too much of a fuss.