Reading a school map

In your book, Maths Mela (Chapter 2), Preet's elder sister draws a sight map of her school: a drawing of the school as seen from above, showing where each place is. Here is a simple school map in words, with places from the book.

The entrance is on the main road. From the entrance, one straight main path goes into the school and ends at the playground. As you walk in from the entrance, you pass two crossings. At the first crossing, the library is on your left and the medical room is on your right, just across the path from it. At the second crossing, the Grade 4 classroom is on your left and the IT room is on your right. At the end of the path is the playground. The stage is at the far side of the playground, the sports room is at its left side and the MDM kitchen is at its right side.

Directions use 'turn left' and 'turn right', and they depend on which way you are facing. The water delivery man comes in at the entrance. To reach the MDM kitchen he walks straight along the main path to the playground, then turns right. From the Grade 4 classroom, you come out of the door onto the main path; now the playground is on your left, so you turn left to go towards it.

Often there is more than one route. From the Grade 4 classroom to the stage, Route 1 goes along the main path: 10 steps to the path, 20 steps to the playground and 30 steps across it to the stage, which is 60 steps. Route 2 goes out of the back door and round the garden path: 35 steps and then 45 steps, which is 80 steps. Route 1 is shorter, by 80 − 60 = 20 steps. After assembly in the playground, Bholu walks 30 steps to the IT room and Rani walks 15 steps to the sports room, so Bholu's walk is longer.