Kaviyan School

Marsden Street is a bit quieter than the main Park Street area, which is good for us. We are at number 9, and the school is just an old building that we’ve used for a long time. It has high ceilings and the fans hum all day long to keep the air moving. The kids arrive by 8 AM and the whole place wakes up. I’ve noticed that the stairs are starting to wear down in the middle from all the walking over the years. We have a few rooms for each grade, and the desks are pushed close together because we try to fit everyone in. It’s not a very big school, but we make it work somehow. Most of the teachers live nearby, so they just walk or take a rickshaw. We don’t have a lot of fancy equipment, just the blackboards and some old maps that have faded over time. During the break, you can hear the chatter from the courtyard. It’s a lot of Bengali and English mixed together. Sometimes the street vendors outside sell snacks and the kids try to peek through the gate. We spend our afternoons finishing up the lessons and making sure the registers are signed. It’s a simple routine that hasn't changed much. People in Kolkata know this street well, and we’ve been part of the neighborhood for quite a while. We don't try to be anything special, just a school for the children in this area.