Facing the Commoving Times! – Pallavi Panigrahi

[This one’s by Pallavi Panigrahi – yeah! the same CLAT 2012 – Rank 2 kid. She says that she hates being identified with her CLAT Rank, for she’s bored of it and thinks it’s history. Well, we’ll still call her the ‘rank 2 kid’. Such overdose of humility is alien to us! Anyway, she wrote this piece while Soumya Cheedi (Batch of 2017 – NALSAR) gave her critiquing feedback, wherever she felt it was needed.]

March 2012. Boards. CLAT. Every other relative and neighbor who needed to know what plans I had for my life. Of course, I wanted to do law, but then, well… Was I making the right choice? This nagging question kept me awake for nights in a row. Why did I want to do law, anyway? Well, obviously, I wanted to bring justice to this world, and blah blah. (; But I also loved the whole concept of law school, the subjects it involved, the perspectives it provided, the opportunities that opened up as its consequence appealed to me was the biggest deciding factor.

(Soumya feels that this quote from Legally Blonde should be quoted here-“Law school is for people who are boring, and ugly, and…serious”)

Anyhoo, when you come to law school, friendly conversations with seniors will usually involve this question- Why did you choose law? Is it because you actually want to do it or is it because Savita aunty thinks you should? (Or, God forbid, are you one of these?) Think, children, think! And if you are convinced enough, then half your work is done. Well, not half of it, but if you know why you’re doing it, you’ve just given yourself a very good reason to suffer for it. Why do I say this? Because the preparation process for CLAT is not easy. It requires applying your mind. Four of the five components that are tested in the exam – English, Logical Reasoning, Legal Aptitude and Math – require you to use your concepts, instead of facts. G.K. isn’t a cake walk either. It requires you to work. And you can’t remember 1193128493472 names places and stuff. You’ll need to make connections and patterns. You’ll need use your mind. All of this requires a certain level of practice and dedication. And most importantly, smart work.

CLATGyan has told you, mentors have told you, we have told you, everyone else has told you. Cramming your desk with a 101 books, drawing up 16 hour a day schedules, cutting yourself off from your family and friends and shunning the sun till the end of the exam is not the need of the hour. (Soumya disagrees!) And overstressing is a curse. To the contrary, what is need is achievable schedules (Make sure you stick to it!), regular practice and most importantly, productive breaks. And whatever you do, do not mess up your board exams for the sake of your CLAT preparations. This time of the year, boards take precedence. However, do what you can. If doing G.K. counts as a break for you, take it!  (:

Remember that you can only do so much, ultimately it comes down to those two hours on a sunny May afternoon (Soumya says it was raining when she wrote it). So work as hard as you can now. And you can’t help what happens there. All you can is make sure that you’re happy with the work that you put in in the end. CLAT, whether you get through or not, is hardly the end of the world. It’s a wide, wide world out there.

“By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day”. – Robert Frost (the same man who wrote “Miles to Go Before I Sleep”)

Hope you’re psyched! We’re looking forward to seeing you at law school! (I at Nagarbhavi and Soumya at Justice City)