Chaitanya Vidyalaya

Comfortably snugged behind a function hall provides the authorities of Chaitanya Vidyalaya all the anonymity they desire. There is no hoarding shouting its presence nor any grand furnishing of a huge gate. A tiny walkway leads to an open ground and a blackboard right ahead announces the holiday schedule. Everything else from that step ahead is Chaitanya Vidyalaya.

The school campus would seem small to you if you move around in chariots and need green forestry for your horses to graze in. For most others, the extra-large basketball courts and a decent cricket ground suffice. Any resizing of the library, however, is as ludicrous as asking Elton John to stop wearing pink. The school library is home to more than 3,000 books, some of which are even read by the students.

At the corner of the library, a photo of a smiling lady adorns the wall. Funny that you would weigh the odds of the Mona Lisa lying in some Hyderabadi school library. The lady is no Italian, but an Anglo-Indian by the name of Barbara Prince - the founder-principal of this school. The story goes that Prince was the sole driving force that helped this school gain its present reputation. She struggled against low-publicity and strict-admission policies and taught young children something new and rather unheard of these days discipline.

Her untimely death in 1999 doesn't seem to have ended the practice. The kids still may or may not learn their subjects. They still may or may not come dressed as they please. They still may or may not end up couch potatoes. But these children do surely know they have inherited a colorful tradition, and they carry these expectations with pride.