Army School

Army School out here in Kunraghat, Gorakhpur, has a very specific feel to it. Being in this part of town, you get used to the sounds of the nearby base and the general order of things. The school grounds are fairly large, and there’s a lot of open space where the wind kicks up the dust in the dry months. We have a lot of trees that provide some shade, which is good because it gets incredibly hot here. The buildings are plain, mostly white or off-white, and they’ve been around for a long time. Everything is kept as neat as we can manage, though with so many kids running around, it’s a constant battle against the mud and the dirt. We spend our mornings checking uniforms and making sure the lines are straight during assembly. It’s not a fancy place with expensive decorations. It’s more about the sturdy desks and the big windows that let in a bit of a breeze. The staff room is usually a mess of tea cups and corrected homework piles. We don't spend much time worrying about how things look to outsiders; we just focus on the daily schedule. There’s a lot of walking between the different blocks, and by the end of the day, everyone is pretty tired. It’s just a solid, working school in a busy part of Gorakhpur.