Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan

Our address is a bit confusing because of the old and new numbers on Kilpauk Garden Road, but people usually find us anyway. The building has been sitting here in Kilpauk for a long time, and you can see that in the way the stairs have worn down over the years. It’s a busy part of town, so there is always the sound of horns and engines coming in from the street. The trees outside give a little shade, but it still gets quite stuffy in the middle of the day. The staff has been here for years, some of us since before the new road numbers were even assigned. We spend our mornings checking the registers and making sure the classrooms are somewhat tidy before the first bell rings. It’s not a fancy place with lots of new gadgets, but it works for us. We have the usual chalkboards and those old wooden benches that creak when you sit on them. In the afternoons, the sun hits the windows on the side of the building and makes it really bright inside. We usually have a lot of tea in the staff room and talk about the neighborhood. It’s just a normal part of life here. We don’t try to be anything we aren’t, we just show up and do the work that needs doing. Sometimes the gate gets stuck, and we have to give it a good kick to open it properly.