Sri Sai Vidya English Medium School

Mukhalingam is a quiet place most of the time, and our school, Sri Sai Vidya English Medium School, sits right in the middle of it. We started out with just a few rooms and some plastic chairs. Now we have a proper building. Most of our students walk here from the surrounding houses in Srikakulam. You can see their uniforms getting a bit dirty by the time they arrive because of the dusty paths. Inside, the walls are painted a light color that has started to peel in the corners. We do not have any big air conditioners, just the ceiling fans that hum all day long. The teachers sit in a small staff room drinking tea during their breaks. We talk about the kids who are struggling with their spelling or the ones who keep losing their pencils. It is a lot of repetition, teaching the same things year after year, but it is important work for the village. On rainy days, the sound on the roof is so loud we have to shout a bit to be heard. The playground is just a patch of ground where the boys play cricket with a taped-up tennis ball. We do not have a big fancy office, just a desk with too many papers on it. It is just how things are here. We show up, teach the lessons, and go home to our families in the evening.