This is just a very cynical and in some parts imaginary take on law school-ites. It is not meant to dissuade anyone from taking up law as a career neither does it reflect on the culture of any particular law school or Indian NLUs in general.
This is just a post to take a dig at ourselves and remind ourselves that we have not lost our sense of humour still.
“Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.”
Some indicators of your becoming a ‘pucca’ law school-ite:
1. You are a grammar Nazi and stickler for correct use of the language which is the only one the Bard of Avon knew, who sadly knew none of Latin and little of Greek. (And you know what this means).
2. You use per se, res ipsa loquitor and ipso facto as if they are regular usage in anyone’s vocabulary.
3. You refer to judges and legal luminaries as if they own the cigarette shop outside your law school.
4. You have very high ideals and are seriously interested in international law but still swear by two words: Amarchand Mangaldas.
5. You have perfected the art of jugaad and have all the gyan that a junior needs on internships.
6. You have some 1286 ideas of how to reform your law school but desperately need that nap after classes and thus could never bring in those changes.
7. Mooting sounds as sexy as an orgasm.
8. You start a website or a blawg every other month and these ‘start ups’ fizzle away into oblivion when your end semesters approach.
9. You have a model CV and cover letter for internship application from a senior saved in your hard disk.
10. Each time you memorise a weird sounding case name you wonder why only people with weird names had to file cases.
11. Your idea of the world is wide, very wide. It includes: CGPA Internship CGPA Internship CGPA Internship CGPA Internship CGPA Internship CGPA Internship CGPA Internship.
12. You frequently curse the idea of law school and think the Indian NLU model is as far removed from a law school as it can be.
13. You have an idea about every law firm and their work environments and shall choose accordingly. Exceptions being: Amarchand, Luthra, Trilegal, AZB, Khaitan, JSA, etc. (the whole list actually).
14. You write original research papers for every semester by changing the title of the project you got from your friend from XNLU.
15. You love your parents. They spent so much for you to be in “X (put in the name of any foreign university) of the East”. You will make them proud. One day…..Some day.
S.D.
www.cinnathewriter.blogspot.com
2. You use per se, res ipsa loquitor and ipso facto as if they are regular usage in anyone’s vocabulary.
Kind of annoys me when people do that too much 😛
fabulous article!!! loved it!!!
hey this is not a response to this aricle. but these are my feelings
“So what do you want to do in your life?” asked my father solemnly.I said “anything except engineering or MBBS.”. He said “This doesn’t seem a fair answer.” . That night I lay awake thinking.I was perturbed by the fact that I didn’t know what to do. What if I didn’t want to do anything . What if I wanted to be some sort of ‘loser’, quickly I tried to withdraw Such thoughts out of my head . The next day my English teacher asked me “So Aastha what do you want to do with your life? ”. A bit surprised by the question I didn’t know what to say. So I replied “I want to do something BIG.”. My teacher was confused by my answer. She may have thought to herself “Is she out of her mind? hahaha….must have read some sort of inspirational book.”. Then she asked “BIG as in?”. I understood the sarcasm in her voice so I tried to keep my head held up high and replied “BIG as in I want to make a change in this system. Everyday while sipping our morning tea and reading the newspaper we curse the system. But I want to be a part of the system to change the system. And mind you I am not trying to give you a idealistic answer butI am speaking these words from my heart. We have the nerve of abusing the system but never we try to change the system.”. “WOW….! ” I said to myself. I had really said some cool stuff. After speaking all those things I realized maybe that’s what I want to do, maybe I want to change the system. My mind was boggling upon which career I want to choose. Hesitantly I typed “career options” on Google. I was further more puzzled by the list of the options that came on. ‘Do I want to do accountancy? ’ . ‘Nooo’ myinner-self replied. I thought ‘How about pursuing hotel management? I am smart and confident , I think I will be able to do good in this field’ . But after a few seconds I realized ‘Hold on……!Is this what you want to really do?….What about the whole WANT TO DO BIG CRAP….? ’. Hmmm….I thought maybe my ‘other inner self ’ is right. Then I was scrolling the links further when I saw in the options it was written ‘LAW’. I started staring at the option. I was confused and scared. ‘Is this what you want to be? Do you want to be a part of the judicial system of our country?’. My mind was jumbled and numb. I was not able to think anything. After that dayI used to try to imagine myself in the courtroom as a judge (I even used to wear that wig…!hahaha!!) and I even imagined myself as a lawyer. It used to feel nice. Then I tried to end my turmoil by asking myself loud and clear ‘Aastha Maggu do you see yourself as a part of the judiciary? Do you want to pursue law?’. Then I replied ‘Hell. Yeaahh….!’.Finally I got the answer to the question ‘So what do you want to do with your life?’.Happy. Relaxed. But a long way to my destination.
“Want to do Big Crap”.
LOL.
Also, you start such posts with disclaimers!
ha ha…i loved this one. Esp. the Harvard of the East thing. Though it was unspoken but for a nalsar alumunus like I am, it if fairly obvious. Keep it going. Really good job. Any may the wit and humour never die. 🙂
Hello Tejasvi,
How are you? When are you coming for convo?
We already miss your batch. Especially, the liveliness in the mess. You all were mostly such happy faces. Nalsar without the proverbial ‘our fifth years’ seems different.
Dear Sandipan
I believe you are confusing me for Tejaswi Shetty. This is Tejasvi Purusharth here (2009 batch). 🙂
Hello Tejasvi,
Profoundly sorry for the inadvertent mistake.
Sincerely,
Sandipan.
Ha Ha!
This was very well written!! No. 4 and 7. I especially miss the moot courts. They are the only things I miss about the law school. Moots and the daru parties. Shatter more keys!!