Sri Vidya Vikas High School

If you know Valluri Vari Veedhi in the Krishna Lanka area of Vijayawada, you know it can get pretty crowded. That is where you will find Sri Vidya Vikas High School. It is right in the thick of things. The school is surrounded by houses and small shops, so there is always the sound of local life drifting through the windows. Vijayawada is a hot place, and our classrooms definitely feel it in May. We use a lot of ceiling fans, and they are usually running at full speed from morning until the kids go home. The hallway is narrow, and when the classes change, it gets very loud with the sound of feet on the stone floors. We try to keep the place tidy, but with so many students coming in and out from the dusty streets, it is a constant battle. The desks are the old-fashioned kind, some of them have carvings from students who were here ten years ago. We don't have a huge playground, so the kids make do with the space we have. Most of the parents work nearby in the city and like that they can just walk their children to the gate. It is a very local operation, run by people who live just a few streets away. We just focus on the textbooks and the exams, making sure everything is ready for the next day. It is not glamorous, but it is what we do for the neighborhood.