Saraswati Vinay Mandir

Saraswati Vinay Mandir sits right in the middle of Jetpur. It is easy to find if you are familiar with the Rajkot area. The streets here are always full of activity, and the school is no different once the first bell rings at the start of the day. We have kids from all over the 360370 area code coming in every morning. Some walk and others arrive on bicycles that they lean against the back wall. The classrooms are simple, with just the basic stuff like chalkboards and benches. We don’t have air conditioning, so when the heat gets really bad in May, we just open all the windows and hope for a little breeze. It gets a bit noisy with the traffic outside, but everyone is used to it by now. The teachers usually bring their own lunch boxes and sit together in the small staff room during the break. There is a small tap in the corner of the yard where the students wash their hands before eating. It’s a very practical kind of place. We don’t spend much time worrying about how things look as long as the students are sitting down and doing their work. Sometimes the electricity goes out for an hour or two, and we just keep going with the lesson. It is just a local school doing what it needs to do for the families living nearby. You can hear the sound of children reciting their lessons if you pass by in the morning. It’s a steady, predictable routine that keeps us all going.