Banamalipur (Degree) College

Out here in Banamalipur, life moves at its own pace. Our college is tucked away in the Khurda area, and it’s been a staple of the community for a good bit of time. It’s a degree college, so we get students who are looking to finish their basic studies after school. Most of them come by bus or cycle from the nearby villages. The building itself is functional. It’s got what we need to get through the day. Sometimes the power goes out and we just open the windows and keep going with the lesson. It gets a bit dusty in the dry season, but that’s just how things are around here. The staff room is usually a mix of people drinking tea and grading papers. We don't have a big marketing team or anything like that. Word usually travels by mouth through the local families. Many parents around Khurda attended this place back in the day, so they send their kids here too. We have a small library that stays quiet, and a playground where the boys play cricket when the weather allows it. It’s not an elite institution, just a place where young people come to learn and figure out what’s next for them. Every year we see a new batch of faces and say goodbye to the old ones. It’s a cycle we’ve grown very used to. It feels like home to most of us who work here.