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This paper is based on observations of a mathematics classroom in a government school in Delhi. The children are in class IV and the observations were made over the course of the academic school year. A selection of episodes was analysed to highlight processes that unfold within this community of learners, in engagement with each other, with the texts and within a particular socio-cultural context. In a system of schooling where rigorous drill and practice methods of teaching remain the norm, especially in the domain of mathematics, the classroom in question is a marvelous deviation from the ordinary. An analysis of the data and the interactions between the teacher and the children, both verbal and non-verbal and math related and non-math related, reveal the teacher’s sensitivity and engagement with the socio-cultural contexts of the children’s lived experience.  A truly dialogic and reciprocal exchange between teacher and students allows a gradual unfolding of the children’s potential to question and to reason in amazingly sophisticated and creative ways, allowing them to unravel the complexity of the mathematical reasoning and its applications. The analysis attempts to trace the kinds of interactions that take place in the classroom and the ways in which children’s understanding of mathematical concepts is embedded within it.