Chathrapathy Shivaji Dav Secondary School

Down in Kodambakkam, on Circular Road, sits Chathrapathy Shivaji Dav Secondary School. It’s a busy part of Chennai, and the road can get quite cramped during peak hours. No 29 is where we’ve been operating for quite some time now. The building is a familiar sight for anyone who lives in this part of town. We handle secondary education, so the students are a bit older and usually quite focused on their board exams. The heat in Chennai can be tough, especially in the afternoons, so we have a lot of fans going in the classrooms. It’s not a silent place; there’s always the sound of someone reciting something or the noise from the street coming through the windows. We don't have a massive campus with acres of grass, but we make the best of the space we have on Circular Road. The staff room is usually piled high with notebooks waiting to be corrected. Most of us have been here for years and we know the families in the neighborhood. It’s a local school through and through. We don't use fancy words to describe what we do. We just open the gates in the morning and start the lessons. There’s a lot of history in this neighborhood, and we feel like a small part of it. When school lets out, the whole street fills up with uniforms and bicycles. It’s a bit chaotic but it is just our daily life.