Arya Mahila Inter College

You can find us over in Katia Tola in Shahjahanpur. We’ve been operating out of this building for years and it has a lot of character, or at least that's what we tell ourselves when the roof leaks a little. Being an inter college means we see a lot of young women coming through these doors every morning. The area around Katia Tola is always busy, especially when the gates open and everyone is trying to get inside at once. Inside, the hallways are long and there are old photos on the walls from years ago. The benches in the classrooms are wooden and have seen better days, but they do the job. We don’t have a lot of fancy equipment, so we mostly rely on books and a lot of talking. The teachers are usually seen carrying heavy bags of notebooks to grade. During the winter, it gets quite cold in the bigger rooms because the ceilings are so high. We try to keep things organized, but with so many students, it can get a bit chaotic by midday. There’s a small space where we keep some sports gear and another corner for the library which smells like old paper. It’s just a normal place for learning without any of those modern bells and whistles. We are just part of the neighborhood here and everyone knows where the college is located.