“I have been coming to this study centre for five years now. I passed my Class 10 board exams with 92 per cent while I was studying here and since it is just five minutes from the bus stop, it is easily accessible too,” says 22-year-old Vijay Rathod, a resident of Cuffe Parade’s Ambedkar Nagar and a regular visitor at the Annie Shekhar Study Centre at Colaba’s Cooperage ground.

As Rathod and his friends are seen engaged in their studies, some with books and others on laptops connected to the multi-plug board attached to the central pole, at the opposite end, sits UPSC aspirant Sagar Kanojiya engrossed in YouTube lessons for the Staff Selection Commission competitive exams. Built at the periphery of the Colaba Cooperage garden and just adjacent to the traffic garden, the study centre is a refuge for many such students residing in the nearby chawls and slum-areas of Colaba.