Baba Vishwanath Degree College

Up here in Mardanpur, things move a bit slower than in the bigger cities. The college is a local landmark for folks in this part of Ghazipur. It’s a solid building, made of brick and cement, standing out among the fields. We get students from all over the surrounding villages who travel by bus or bicycle to get here. Most of them are the first in their families to even go to a degree college, so it's a bit of a point of pride for the neighborhood. The hallways are usually echoing with voices between lectures. We don't have any fancy air conditioning, so we rely on the ceiling fans and the breeze coming through the open windows. Sometimes the power goes out, and we just have to wait it out or keep going with the natural light. It's just how things are in 275205. The professors here are mostly local people too. They know the families and the struggles students face with farm work or help at home. We have a small office where all the records are kept in big paper ledgers. It’s not a high-tech operation, but it gets the job done. Every year we see a new batch of faces come through the front doors, looking to finish their studies and find some work. We just keep the doors open and the classrooms ready for whoever shows up to learn something new.