Kota Public School

In the middle of Malad East, on Poddar Road, you will find the Vallabh Darshan Building. We are tucked away in unit B/4, which serves as the home for Kota Public School. It is a regular residential and commercial building, so we share the space with families and other small businesses. This means our school day starts with the typical sounds of a Mumbai apartment block waking up. We don't have a massive campus with gates and guards; instead, we have a front door that opens into our classrooms. The rooms are filled with the smell of old paper and chalk, and the sunlight comes in through the windows that face the street. Poddar Road is often jammed with traffic, especially in the evenings, so we hear a lot of honking while we are finishing up our work. Our staff is small, and we all do a bit of everything, from teaching to cleaning up the desks at the end of the day. There are no fancy uniforms for the office staff, just regular clothes and a lot of patience. We have a small cupboard where we keep all the school records and another one for the students' projects. It is a bit crowded, but it feels like a real community because everyone knows everyone else’s name. We aren't looking to grow into a giant institution; we just like being a small, reliable part of the neighborhood here in Malad.