Vidya Ganapathi Education Institution

If you take the Kodiyala Road out in Kottatti, you will eventually see Vidya Ganapathi Education Institution. We are in the Mandya area, which is well known for its sugarcane fields and hard-working people. Our school is much the same as the people here. It’s a practical building meant for learning, and we don’t have a lot of bells and whistles or fancy decorations. There are classrooms with old blackboards and rows of wooden benches that have seen many different students come and go over the years. Mandya is a place where people value a straight answer, and that’s exactly how we try to run things here. The walk to the school is pretty, especially when the local crops are green. We have a lot of local children who walk or cycle here from the surrounding farms every morning. It’s become a bit of a hub for the community in the Kottatti area. We don't spend any money on big advertisements or glossy brochures. Most of our students end up here because their older siblings or their cousins came to this school before them. We try to keep the place as clean as we can, though the mud from the road gets tracked into the building during the monsoon months. The teachers are mostly from around this district, so they understand the background and the lives of the kids they teach. It’s a simple setup. We teach what needs to be taught and try to keep things orderly and calm. It’s just a steady place that has been part of the local landscape for a long time.