Maa Sharda Academy

Up here in Bageshwar, the air is usually a bit cooler, which helps when the classrooms get full of students. Maa Sharda Academy is a simple building where we spend our days teaching and looking after the kids. It’s not a huge place, just a few rooms and a small area outside where the children can run around during the break. We start quite early in the morning when the sun is just coming up over the hills. There is always a lot of noise—kids talking, chairs dragging across the floor, and the bell ringing. We spend a lot of time grading papers and writing on the chalkboards. Sometimes we run out of chalk or the pens stop working, so we have to go down to the local market to get more supplies for the week. The walls are covered in drawings and charts that the students have made over the months. We don't have a big administration department; it’s just the teachers doing the work and keeping the place running. It gets quiet in the afternoons once everyone goes home, and that’s when we get the cleaning done. It’s a lot of responsibility, but we’ve been doing it for years now. We just want to make sure the kids have a place to learn and a routine to follow every day. It’s a basic life but it keeps us busy and involved with the local families.