Pondicherry

Front view of the Abishekapakkam high school, attached to the junior schoor - the computer center is housed here

The Abishekapakkam Goverment Primary School, catering mostly to the children of local laborers

Class 2 children obidiently stay mum as their class teacher keeps the stick handy

A young lady ponders the rest of her day as her friends watch the photographer with due suspicion

A young man needs some convincing from the cook before he can be made to start his meal

Some children eat in classrooms, others, in smaller classes, line up outside the kitchen area

The stick, of course, is handy in every situation

The computer classes are held in the high school complex nearby - here class 4 students play word games

The more proactive, though not necessarily academically more oriented, would take control of the mouse

An conservationist rally heads out on world earth day

Holding signs on a variety of topics - from family planning to resource conservation, the children walk through the village

salwar kameez replaces the half-sari for older girls: younger ones wear skirts -- all provided by the govt.

Many more college, and post-graduate degree holders than in neighboring Karnataka

The teaching staff, mostly from Pondicherry town

A free bicycle for each Dalit student who makes it to Class IX, partly to offset distance of high schools from smaller villages

Head teachers C. Chirapathy Gnanamurthy are often short of manpower when teachers are sent on census duty

The state made the Kamaraj photo mandatory - the head teacher went ahead and put a pic of himself under it

This young fan of Tamil star Vijay felt the software would be better with Vijay voiceovers

The burden of heavy schoolbags, a standard sight through most of India, even where kids have no books

An ice cream vendor waits for recess to start selling some goodies to the high schoolers

The lane right outside the school is lined with residential homes and some livestock

Neighbourhood parents are mainly agricultural laborers, some earn enough for private schools

These parents wanted their daughter to 'work in computers' - they once lived in Mumbai, now owned a rickshaw here

The headquarters of the education department for Pondicherry state

Mr. Ramdas, the Joint Director for Education, a veteran of the SSA and DIET before that

Rajshekhar, the state coordinator of the computer aided learning programs for APF

Umakant, a senior official with the SSA program

The dark-skinned macho of bodybuilding on sale at Thavalkuppam, 1 km from the school

Metrosexuality goes all the way down to the village level here

Tution classes, and anything to do with English-speaking, or personality-development have burgeoning demand

An inadequately anticipated shot of the standee rickshaws on the East Coast road, where 3-seaters fit 10

Considering the speed at which these travel, some bravery on part of the driver and the passenger go in here