Aadarsh Bal Vidhya Niketan

Our place is out in Gram Babulda, which is part of the Bhanpura area in Mandsaur. If you are coming from the main town, it takes a little bit of time to get here. Aadarsh Bal Vidhya Niketan sits right in the middle of the village life. You can hear the tractors passing by and see the dust settling on the desks if the windows are left open. It is a very basic building, but it does the job for the local kids who live around here. We spend our mornings cleaning up the classrooms and getting the chalkboards ready. The children walk in from the nearby houses, some of them with messy hair or shirts tucked in the wrong way. It is not a fancy city school with air conditioning or big computers. We have benches that have seen better days and a playground that is mostly just dirt and some grass. During the rainy season, the path gets a bit muddy, but everyone still shows up. We mostly focus on the books and making sure the students know their numbers and letters. Life in this part of Mandsaur is slow, and the school reflects that. We don't have a big staff, just a few of us trying to keep things running every day. It is a quiet existence here in 458775, just teaching the kids what they need to know.