The 'Aranya Bhavan' days

Ya ya… ‘am sorry… for two reasons…

First, it’s been over 20 days since I posted my last bit. The one thing that law school taught me, and taught me well, was to make fancy excuses for every folly that could piss off the teachers. Not that I want to exert my skill at it today, just that reasons of lack of time and over-piling of work, could possible top the charts if I were to do so.  Anyways, here’s a consolation for my limited readers (by the way, the stats say that my readership is rising!!! quite surprising.. isn’t it??) – I promise to step up my frequency of writing by at least 50%, going forward.

Second, I’ve decided to write more about my college before I start on Atul. Reason – I don’t know… perhaps, I need to build the suspense of bringing him on stage – not for long though. I think, my next post should raise the curtains.

Okay. So, here we go.

As days past by in NUJS, I realized the sands of time were mercilessly slipping away. Indeed, time is just like sand at a sea beach, the firmer you try to grasp it, the faster it slips away. Life at law school, or for that matter at any college or university I presume, is so exciting and happening that every soul wishes it to stay for eternity. Going to bed, getting up for classes, partying out or simply sitting over mugs of booze in the hostel terrace at nights – everything seems to be at ready disposal with no guardian to command. The only impediments are the mandatory requirements of attendances and the deadlines set by the University, which frankly enough, fade into pale insignificance in the daily lives of students.

In my first year, the college did not have its own building and campus. We had to march to a nearby building rechristened as ‘Aranya Bhawan’ for attending our classes. The University had taken one floor on lease, I guess, for a couple of years while our own building was being put to shape. Notwithstanding, the University had arranged for our accommodation in the hostel premises inside the campus. Hence, our job was to get up everyday at around nine and get ready for classes half an hour hence. It is rather ironical that during its primitive days, the college seemed to attract better faculty than in its later days after having grown in age and infrastructure.

Classes were taken on time without any breaks in between, resulting in us sitting for almost five hours at a stretch, listening to subjects like history, political science, sociology and economics, the necessity of which, till date, most of us fail to understand. We were made to believe that these subjects would aid us in comprehending law from a perspective unknown to the ‘ordinary’ lawyer and that it would propel us to be Fali Narimans and Ram Jethmalanis one day. I wonder whether these stalwarts ever read such subjects in their law courses and if so, whether they did so knowing their utilities in legal practice.