The NUJS as I saw it

The NUJS as I saw it
The 'Pillar' of Justice

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A Topper in Love!

This relates back to those days when I just happened to step into my third year in NUJS. Out of a total batch strength of around eighty to begin with, we were now left with some seventy odd. Few of them had flunked and few left the institution like the lady I was referring to previously. Some who had made it to the third year were struggling to cope with the academics and had a bleak future to look ahead. One such character was Tilak. A decent, calm, composed and introvert boy, Tilak was always quite weak in studies. He was, unfortunately, one of those guys who aspired to score the highest in exams, but could only manage just enough marks to pass. He put in more hours of studies than any of the brilliant guys around. But, I guess, he never knew what to study and the mode of writing marks-fetching answers in the exams. My interaction with him was quite minimal, but his case remains fresh in my album of memories, fresh enough to quote his account at this juncture.

Quite similar to the tales in movies, Tilak fell for Nisha, a charming girl in the same batch, who unsurprisingly happened to be amongst the high scorers. In fact, it actually surprised all of us to witness the courtship, as she was always known to be those academic freaks whose life centered around heaps of law books. But then, love in college is driven by an army of cupids, I believe. Just show your interest in it, and cupids come running for your life. This was the case with Tilak and Nisha. After the end semester vacations, we resumed classes only to see the two of them sitting together in the last row. This is, by far, the best indication of the blooming love between any couple. Quite amazed at the sight of the lady taking the last row, the rest of the batch applauded the choice of priority that she had undertaken. She, like any other ordinary mid ranker, chucked her note books and stopped taking notes. The fact that the rest of the class always depended upon the hundred pages of class notes distributed by her during exams took a back seat and, absolutely oblivious of the days to come, she began deriving the pleasure of a new chapter to her college life.

Tilak belonged to a very humble background with parents just managing to get him an educational loan. And he too was aware of his financial constraints, but never let anyone sympathise on him. Quite a self dignified person he was, for sure. But the moment love struck his life, he was a changed person. Taking loans from his friends for shopping and spending the rest on phone calls became a regular habit. The one thing that cupid doesn’t provide you with is the money to enjoy your love, which is the paramount parameter for any love story to meet a contended closure in college. Nisha, on her part ensured that the money spent by Tilak was well accounted for. Just like a true lady love, she purchased gifts for her boyfriend, money that would have otherwise been spent on law books and journals. Quite surprisingly, none of them foresaw the obvious future which loomed all over in the regular chats amongst the other classmates. In fact, I do remember Atul rendering his unwarranted advise to the couple, ceremoniously, only to fall before deaf ears and blind lovers. I always wondered why Atul was never taken seriously by others, even though he hardly proved wrong in anything he said. Anyways, nothing worse could have happened to Tilak as he was always a weak student to begin with. He performed pathetically in his projects and his gallows in the college became quite apparent. But as regards Nisha, we witnessed a phenomenon which could hardly be comprehended by anyone around.

A person who had never been second in submitting her projects, decided against submitting them altogether. Despite repeated warnings from the subject teachers and wise words from her friends, she could not submit any project for any of the subjects in that semester. After all, she was never the same old girl again. Love had propelled her into a world of dreams which was quite astronomically distant from the truths of reality. Some of us even ventured helping her by volunteering to partly complete her projects and gather class notes for her. But could a person who was catapulted so far away be possibly brought back to ground?

As could be easily predicted, she faired poorly even in her end-semesters and consequently was detained in four of the five subjects offered that semester. Quite ironically, Tilak managed to clear all the papers, though with poor marks. Our batch often exhibited its unity when the college authorities metted out injustice to one of our fellow mates. Detaining Nisha otherwise, would have certainly drawn the wrath of the class, but in this instance, it was a simple res ipsa. Her unspeakable callousness towards academics was only reflected in her results and we could never question the genuine marks of the college administration. However, just to make matters clear from our end, the class representative (much similar to a class prefect in high schools) had a chat with the Vice Chancellor only to be shown the door. Seeking a re-valuation of the subject marks meant shelling out half a grand for each. That calculated to a total of two thousand bucks in her case. Considering the terrible financial condition that she was undergoing consequent to her extravagant generosity in purchasing gifts for her boyfriend who had, in this case, happily managed to pass all his papers and save his back, the class decided to contribute for her revaluations. Evidently, this was the utmost that the class could do for her, taking into account the frequent counseling sessions that her friends used to render her. But, as was expected, our contributions failed to provide her anything more than an emotional comfort. The University’s decision of detaining her had made firm ground and had to prevail.

With utter remorse and disappointment, she had to bid adieu to the college as her parents summoned her back home and advised her against repeating a year in the college. We were infact hardly surprised by the decision she had arrived at, as this was the usual practice amongst detainees. It still perplexes me to imagine the excruciating impact such a step would ordinarily have on the career of a student, who having spent two years at an institution, decides to leave the institution with no alternate plans to take recourse to. It was a month later that we heard that she had joined a computer course in her home town. What was more fascinating, though unpleasant, for us to hear was that the couple had decided to call it a day and ‘break up’. It’s for no reason, I think, that Atul had said that gauging a woman’s mind was a task even God failed to succeed in. The odessey of a brilliant student, traversing the corridors of fame in the college, falling in love with an ‘ordinary’ guy, deciding to quit studies and thereafter leaving the college after being detained for poor performance in exams, is one kind of a tale which would perplex the best fiction authors.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Show Stoppers

I spent five years at law school amidst a mix of intelligent, beautiful, sharp, witty and wily ladies. I wasn’t a Casanova for certain, and neither did I have a large female following. But I got to hang out with friends who used to count the number of girlfriends they had dumped in their college life. Also, belonging to a batch which had girls outnumbering the guys helped matters in this regard. The fact that the topper from our batch was a female, the fact that the second topper from our batch was a female, and also the fact that the third topper from our batch was a female, is never taken into account while I narrate certain anecdotes which aspire to prove my point.     

Let me begin with a story which is again related to moot courts. It’s for no reason that I always tend to relate to this facet of law school. There are occasions when you keep abusing and maligning a thing as you could never achieve it yourself. Mooting ability is one such ‘thing’ for me. This again refers to my maiden attempt to conquer the mooting circuits in law school. Once the list of the much coveted ‘moot court society’ was out, I realized that I was pegged against a female, who happened to be one of the smartest and loveliest ladies that NUJS has ever seen till date. To prove my point, may it suffice to say that she was too smart to remain stuck in the law school for five years. On grounds of having adopted ‘unfair means’ in one of the project assignments, which I thought was a deliberate and intentional strategy on her part to quit legal education, she was detained for one year. She took recourse to the best alternative to repeating a year in the same institution. She left legal education for good, and now she can be seen in one of the decent news channels reading news on global economy. Quite a remarkable attempt to earn fame and success at a young age, I think. In any event, and coming back to the point, I was initially quite excited at have a girl like her as my opposing counsel. It was only much later that I realized the soup I was into.

My well wishers advised me to appoint spies to detect her preparations for the moot. Later, I realized it would hardly serve a purpose as she was always seen flirting around with guys at pubs and restaurants. Further, I learnt from my reliable sources that she had not even bothered picking up a copy of the moot problem so as to begin her preparations for the same. I conjectured that she would either have the genes of a Jethmalani, by far the best criminal lawyer in the country in modern times, or she wouldn’t be bothered enough to please the jury and win the contest. The only method to find an answer to that was to confront her directly, I thought. The next day, after classes, I got a chance to speak to her. Being a shy guy, I had hardly spoken to her before and approaching her on this issue had to look weird. Anyways, I wanted to give it a try.

“Hey”, I said.

“Hi, whats up”, she replied indifferently. I realized that she was attending to a crowd of boys jostling around her, and that I made myself look like one of them. It’s always so good to be a beautiful girl, I thought. 

“Fine yaar, just thought of having a chat with you”, I didn’t know why I uttered the italicized. I guess the law school culture had seeped into me, as this one word found immense importance in the daily conversations amongst people. Also, this helped giving an informal tinge to my exchange of words.

“Chat with me!!!”, she exclaimed, as if she was some nobel laureate and that speaking to her demanded an appointment.

“Ya. Why, do I need to seek permission from her highness to have a chat?”, I replied a bit sternly, probably giving the indication that I was not to be confused with those bunch of self imposed puppets of her’s.

“Wait a minute. Did you try to snap at me? If so, please be advised not to try repeating it. No one talks to me like that. You get it?!!”.

Well, this was quite a bit for me to take. I understand that I wasn’t a macho and certainly did not have the looks resembling Herculean, but, come on, I too had my ‘dignity’.

“Hey... calm down. I did not come to begin a tiff with you. Just wanted to let you know that you are up against me.”

“Against you. What have I done to be up against you?”

Now, that was a shocker for me. Was I sure that she was actually the one, who was placed to argue against me. Did I see the list correctly? Did I cross check and make myself certain about it? Boss, I thought, I would make a fool of myself had I been wrong in this regard.

“Just a second. Aren’t you the one who would be arguing against me in the moot? The one that’s taking place in a week’s time?”

I held my breadth. If I was proved wrong, she would do nothing short of announcing this to her puppets who were looking at the entire scene with curiosity. And this would be blown out of proportions to capture headlines the next day in class.

“Oh, so all this while, you have been trying to talk about that moot court competition. You see, I haven’t even seen the list. And frankly, I did not even know the schedule of the moot until you spoke of it. You see, I just don’t care. For me, ‘preparing’ to argue in the court, and that too, in front of idiots who hardly know the law themselves, is not much of a deal. An hour’s work would suffice me to beat any damn person. And now that I know you are the unfortunate chosen, I shall try my best to give you a piece of my cake.”

Firstly, I couldn’t comprehend an iota of what she intended to say. ‘A piece of her cake’, what was that supposed to mean. Was this one of those law school phrases which I still had not picked up? Or was it just an innovative way to intimate me of the perilous consequences of having to face her as the opposing counsel. But then, I was now quite sure that she hadn’t started her preparations and that my insiders were correct to that extent. She either had to be one of those stupendous lawyers to argue without having read the law, or a witch to read the minds of other competitors.

Days past by and my memorial was ready to be submitted. While submitting it, I enquired about her highness from the moot court society. I was told that she hadn’t even submitted her memorial and that the time for submission had virtually come to a close. She would be facing negative markings for her late submission, if she at all decided to do so. That gave me a booster. I had scored a point even before having to face her in the court. But then, the suspicious instincts of a human mind never seemed to abandon me and I kept thinking of the possible tactics that she would employ to give me a final jolt.

Finally, all speculations came to rest. Just on the day of our appearance in the court, I received the news that she had found a new boyfriend and that she had decided to spend the entire week with him. Poor girl, her new found love was so exuberant about the entire scheme of the likely prospects, that she debunked the idea of even appearing for her competition. Good news for me, and bad for her, I thought.

The fact that I scored the least in the competition and had to find pillars to hide behind after the results were out, wasn’t that an encapsulating a news as compared to the one about the new couple in the college campus. All throughout the day, you could hear people discussing the affair. After all, the most sought-after girl was won over by a classmate. I thought of congratulating her for her prospects and place my regards for leaving me without a competition in the moots. But when I realized that I had flunked the competition even without someone who could rebut my arguments, I shuddered to think of approaching her. The embarrassment was such that I decided to call it a day for my mooting prospects in college.

The story doesn’t end here. It was only a month after the entire fiasco that she ‘broke up’ with her boyfriend only to be single again. What was the point of having a boyfriend and not appearing for the competition, I thought. Either she was stupid enough not to have foreseen the probable future to her ‘relationship’ with the guy, or she just wanted to escape the brunt of the judges without giving the impression of being scared and intimidated by them. I employed all my analytical skills to decipher the entire situation, and quite inevitably, I ended up reaching the same conclusion every time. She had a premonition that I would be quite excited about facing her in the moot competition. Now, the reputation that she had built all these days in law school of being a smart, intelligent and beautiful girl, would fall flat if she were to lose the competition, and that too, after having had to face the easiest competitors around. Thus, the entire scheme of things. So, do we derive a moral from this story? I guess yes, but then spelling it out would ruin the joy of conjecturing it. And so, I refrain.

They say that even God can’t read the mind of a woman. Before I may be interrogated as to who these ‘they’ are, may I lay the basis for this assertion. The basis lies with the frequent philosophical chats I used to have with Atul before he got entangled with the NIFT girl. He used to look at the girls in college disdainfully and provide me with this unsolicited phrase, thereby counseling me to maintain adequate distance from them. It still perplexes me to find a plausible reason for this phrase, but for the present discussion, I do not intend to dive into the matter. The bottom line remains that even God cannot read the mind of a female, leave alone guys.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Tryst with Moots

Well, as days went past by and the semester was at its full swing, Atul’s affair with Mitali also accelerated in almost a geometrical progression. For him, academic grades were of least importance and so one might even guess how he would have graded the upcoming moot-court competition. The NUJS moot court competition is by far the most happening and exciting event that happens annually. Inter-batch and intra-batch contests are held for the NUJS moot team selection. Students forsake hours of merry making and curriculum studies, just to find a place in the prestigious team, thereby gaining the opportunity to represent the college in moots organized within and without the country. I was advised by my peers and seniors to take part in the same and try my luck. I didn’t understand the role of luck in moot courts. Come on, you just cannot rely on your luck to succeed in a competition that is based on pure oratory and research skills, I thought. Anyways, I decided to try ‘my luck’.

There are certain things in a law school that drives people into stardom overnight. One amongst such things is the author of moot problems. The problem-setter’s or the author’s name is usually mentioned as a footnote with the much hyped ‘©’ appearing along with it. I often wondered whether law school students, who are generally expert plagiarisers, could hardly produce such geniuses who could ‘create’ legal problems over which hundreds of students could debate upon. Nonetheless, as potential mooters, we were not supposed to raise such queries, as the implications could easily be conjectured.

We were given five days to prepare our ‘memorials’ and submit them to the ‘moot – court society’. The other thing that attracts major attention and distraction of students in a law school is the number of ‘societies’ that are formed, either by ambitious and opportunistic students, or by various departments in the college. Elaborate plans are formulated at the inception of these societies, only to be jettisoned into the unknown, once they serve the purpose of ornamenting the CVs of its members. However, every general norm has an exception – the moot court society, being one of them.

Five days was, in any case, too less of time to complete an independently researched memorial. Thus, I decided to do what all other potential mooters had already campaigned for – working ‘in groups’, which basically implied, copying, though with minor changes in the language and frills, a standard memorial written by a stud mooter, who was to be given an extravagant dinner by all of us later. The deal sounded good to me. So, the task that was to be completed in five days, got done away within a couple of hours. Next came the task of mugging the memorial and the case laws which substantiated the arguments put forth therein. Now, mugging was an exercise which children undertook to rote poems at schools, I had thought. Law was a subject to be comprehended from law books and analysed and debated at courts of law. However, this business of mooting revealed yet another aspect of legal studies. ‘One should be ‘thorough’ with the memorials, ‘thorough’ enough to refer and cross refer any point of law discussed in it while arguing one’s case in front of the judges’, I was told by one of my seniors who had the tag of being the champion in an international moot court competition.

Later in my tenure at law school, I realized that mugging and roting were infact the keys to high grades in exams. Most teachers did allow ‘bare acts’ and law texts during exams, no doubt, but it never served any purpose, as hunting for the applicable provision in a legislation of about a hundred sections, is quite an impossible task in the limited span of two hours. In any event, the case laws and quotes from landmark judgments, which are critical in impressing the examiners, could only be expectorated in the answer scripts by mugging them an hour before the exams. I wonder if this mechanism of examination at laws schools ever helps in churning good lawyers out of students who merely get trained in developing a short lived retention capacity.

So, as regards my mooting experience, I decided to ‘mug’ the memorial, which in itself was a twenty-page document with each paragraph making references to a dozen of case laws. One can imagine the pain I had to undergo in this process. For few, with high retention capacities, this was a challenge they welcomed all throughout. But in my case, had I stopped cursing myself for having undertaken the task and attempted to seriously memorise the memorial, I guess, I would have had the chance to prove myself a lesser clown.

Finally, the judgment day arrived. The court sessions were scheduled to begin at 8.30 in the morning. The very thought of getting up early, taking a shower and adorning the black suit, sickened me. With the resources I had earned in one year at college, I managed to borrow a black blazer and a black trouser, though of a different shade. I was anyways prepared to be assaulted by the judges. As if my attire mattered much. The night before my appearance in the court, I managed to read through the memorial once. That was the only occasion for me to read through the irrelevant arguments that were written in it. It was a decent indication of the wrath and hard times I had to face the next day at court. Finally, I realized my contribution to buy dinner for the original author of the memorial was an utter waste. Hopeless and cursing myself for one last time, I went off to the land of the nod and waited for the next morning.

It was nothing unusual for me at the court room the day next. The judges slaughtered me not just on points of law and the crap that was written in the submissions, but also on my general demeanor and mannerisms in the courtroom. As I had well expected this to happen, it didn’t come as a surprise. I just wondered what music the others would be facing as they too had identical memorials and similar lines of arguments to place forth in front of these self imposed judges. It is a matter of chance, I thought, for a person to be allotted a court room with familiar and friendly judges. As was always the case, I was granted the toughest court with the rudest and most arrogant seniors judging me. The only consolation was a tender smile and a word from Atul the moment I came out of the room.

‘Who are these idiots to judge you? Two years previously, they were the same as we are today. Their knowledge in law and standing in the college is based on the two years of lectures they’ve been hearing in class rooms. Let them appear in the actual law courts and face the wraths of the judges there.’

The results of the moots weren’t surprising either. I was one of the lowest in the rank list that was published by the moot court society, a clear indication that I had to give a shot at other extra – curriculars to make a name for myself. Mooting was simply not my cup of tea. There are occasions when failures do not bother you. There are times when you become an Atul. This was that occasion for me. My low grades in the moot simply reflected my inability to impress my seniors who considered themselves to be demigods while being addressed as ‘your lordships’. However, what actually surprised me was that the others who had participated in copying the same memorial had done much better than me. Infact, one amongst them even secured the highest marks. But then, as I said, it didn’t matter to me at the end of the day. Finally, I had become an Atul in one aspect of life at least.