M V M Swami Muktanand High School

You can find us at Mogaveera Bhavan on Veera Desai Road in Andheri West. This part of Mumbai, the 400053 zip code, is always loud and crowded. There is always construction or some kind of traffic jam happening right outside our gates. The building itself is shared with other things, so there's a lot of coming and going. We are a high school, so the energy is usually pretty high from early morning until the afternoon. The hallways are narrow and we have to remind the kids not to run too much. It’s not a shiny new office building; it’s a place where people actually live and work. We spend our time managing the classes and trying to keep the noise at a level where people can actually hear themselves think. Sometimes the monsoon rains make the commute to Veera Desai Road a real mess, but everyone still shows up. We have a small staff room where we drink tea and talk about the news or the local train schedules. It’s a very grounded existence. We don't use big words to describe what we do. We just open the doors, teach the lessons, and close up at the end of the day. It’s a busy life in Andheri, but it’s our life. The school has been part of this community for a while and we know the local shopkeepers and the people living in the buildings around us.