Aryabhatta Junior College

We spend most of our mornings here in Patancheru, just off the main road. It gets pretty loud with the traffic outside, but once you’re inside the gates of Aryabhatta Junior College, things settle down a bit. Most days start with the sound of chairs dragging across the floor as students find their seats. The fans in the classrooms have a certain rhythm, especially when it’s hot in Hyderabad. Our staff room is usually a bit messy with notebooks piled up and tea cups sitting on the corner of the desks. We’ve been at this address for a while now, and the building has some cracks here and there, but it holds up. You’ll see the same faces every day, students rushing in at the last minute because the bus was late or because they stopped for a snack down the street. We don’t have fancy stuff, just the basic classrooms and a small place for the kids to hang out during the break. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we just open the windows and keep going. It’s a busy place with a lot of noise during the intervals. The hallways get crowded, and you can hear different teachers talking all at once. By the time evening rolls around and the sun starts setting over 502319, things finally go quiet. We lock up, head home, and then come back to do it all over again the next day.