Chaitanya Bharathi Degree College

If you walk down toward the railway station in Chirala, you will see us. The college is right there, so it is easy for students coming from other towns on the train. It gets very busy in the mornings when the express trains pass by. We have students doing different degrees here. The building has seen better days, but the fans work most of the time. We spend a lot of time in the classrooms talking about the subjects. It is loud because of the station noise, but you get used to it after a week. Students hang out near the entrance during breaks. We do not have a big campus with gardens. It is more of a practical place for people who want to finish their studies and find a job. The staff knows everyone’s name. Sometimes we have to remind the boys to stay quiet in the halls. It is just a regular degree college in Andhra Pradesh. We deal with a lot of paperwork and exam schedules. The tea stall outside is where most of the talk happens. We do not pretend to be something we are not. It is just a place to study near the tracks. The benches are wooden and the walls could use some paint, but the teaching gets done. We open early and close when the last batch finishes for the day. It is a bit of a squeeze when everyone is here at once.