Prathana Vidya Mandir

Our school is over in Shahu Nagar in Belgaum. It’s a residential area, so it stays pretty calm during the day while the classes are on. The building has two floors and a small front yard where we keep a few potted plants. Most of the teachers live nearby, so they just walk or take a short rickshaw ride to get here. We have a bell that someone rings by hand to tell everyone when the periods change. The classrooms are basic with green boards and rows of benches. Sometimes the chalk dust gets everywhere, but that’s normal for a school like this. In Belgaum, the weather gets quite cool in the winter, so the kids wear their sweaters to class. We have a small library room at the back, though it’s mostly just textbooks and some old storybooks. The children bring their lunch in steel boxes, and you can smell the food all through the hallway around noon. We don’t have a big hall, so when we have a function, we just move the benches in the biggest classroom. The walls have some cracks here and there, but the structure is solid enough. It’s a place where children from Shahu Nagar come to learn their basics. We keep things straightforward without any extra frills. The staff knows most of the parents by name because they’ve lived here for years. It’s just a regular neighborhood school.