Dr. Zakir Hussain High School

Down in the Mahendru area of Patna, specifically near Sultan Gunj, you’ll find Dr. Zakir Hussain High School. This part of Patna is very old and the streets are narrow and always full of people. Our school fits right into that. It’s an older building with high ceilings and heavy wooden doors that have been painted many times. We’ve been educating the kids from this neighborhood for a long time. It’s a high school, so we deal with teenagers who are mostly worried about their exams and what they’re going to do after they graduate. The classrooms are full of old desks that have had many names carved into them over the years. We don't have a lot of fancy technology, just the standard blackboards and textbooks. The teachers here are quite strict because you have to be with so many students in one place. During the breaks, the courtyard is packed with boys and girls talking and eating snacks they bought from the vendors outside the gate. It’s a very lively place, maybe even a bit too loud sometimes. We focus on getting through the syllabus and making sure everyone is ready for their finals. There’s a lot of history in these walls, and you can feel it when you walk through the halls. The power goes out sometimes, but we just keep teaching through the heat. It’s just a regular, busy city school trying to help the local kids get through their teenage years.