My Experiments With Christ – Law | A First Year’s Memoir

1. Initial Experiences

It was the first day of college and I walked into the campus (by the way, we do not have a boys’ hostel inside the campus) and entered the Auditorium block. I was in formal wear and so were the rest of the boys around me, tugging at their collars and looking just as uncomfortable as I did. But my definition of ‘formals’ was a little different from theirs (of course I cannot compare it with salwars, can I?). I was nowhere close to their Arrow – Peter England – Hush Puppies combination. In folded sleeves, a shirt that was not properly tucked in and sandals, I entered the auditorium to listen to an amazing personality, Prof. N R Madhava Menon. However, what caught my attention more was not the speaker, but the auditorium. It is THE most amazing auditorium in Bangalore, and probably the best I have ever seen. Even now, it feels great whenever I go there. Coming back to the orientation, Christ had forwarded a mail regarding the orientation and some questions that were to be discussed during it. I had done my research for two days. During the discussion, I found my research far more qualitative than that of the others.

The main issue was that I had never considered Christ a real law school. When they had come to my LST, ‘Psh. Yeahright!’ was my response. Sadly for me, I messed up my CLAT (I am not gonna get into that) and here I was, enrolled into Christ. My brain laughed evilly, “Boy! If you are going to put up with these people, you’ll either go dumb by the end of five years or you will be their hero. You will surely be the odd one out”, it said.

The regular classes started (Oh and by the way, my law school is literally a school. We have classes from 9 AM – 4 PM). Introductions happened. Most of my classmates did not even know my name for at least two weeks. Moot Court workshops, Debate workshops, Journals committee meetings etc. frightened us daily for the first week. We had to stay till 7 PM and beyond.

Then, one fine day, I entered the library. Honestly speaking, it felt amazing. It was posh. It had a LOT of books. I loved it. We then had the first moot rounds for the freshmen, and mine went pretty well. As I came out of the ad hoc court room (class-room), I saw so many people crying. The faculty still think that it was an attempt to rag the juniors offically (Ragging is strictly prohibited in Christ. When I say prohibited, it’s not just one of those signboards. You will never darken any college’s doorsteps ever after if you are caught). My opponent was also torn apart by one of the judges on the Bench (whom I consider one of the best mooters I have ever seen).

Then there was the DPL, or the Debating Premier League. It is organized by the Debating Society, where 70+ teams of three are debating against each other. It’s fun. I convinced myself that I am not that good at speaking. I was good at researching.

And now the year is coming to an end and it feels like I just passed a tunnel in 15 seconds. It was hard to manage exams, CLAT preps (yes, I am writing it again), debates, article-research etc. My Professor was right when he was giving the introduction classes, “You will pass a year and you cannot control the speed. It will just pass by in a flash. You are in law school and you have so many things to do. And by the end of five years you will feel that you still need time to achieve and accomplish all that you had planned to do”. The whole year went by in a flash, and as I look back I can see the way friendships were made, friendships were broken, drama happened, people cried and how life moved on.

2. Other Awesome Things

a)      CIAs (Continuous Internal Assessment).

The class tests, mid semester exams and the assignments (termed as “research” papers) were tedious. We finally understood what our seniors had been complaining about. However the drawback is the futility of burning those extra hours of midnight oil because at the end of the day even the PPP (please refer to point 2.c for further clarification) member next to you gets almost the same marks as you do. But the extra marks matter a lot, especially in a batch that is 250 strong.

b)      Hangouts

Two basketball courts, Ivy hall (where you get the best egg biryani ever), Gourmet, Food court, Birds’ Park and Cafeteria (awesome dosas) are all the hang outs we have. It’s fun when after class you can go hang out and chat with people, show off that you can play amateur basketball and laugh about it. Christ is a zero-waste campus. The facilities are also really good.

The campus too is inside the city unlike NALSAR (no offence). Forum Mall is very close to the campus. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, PVR, etc., you name it, it has it. The lane beside college S.G.Palya, is where all the out station students stay. And not to forget the favourite smoker’s point, JUICY’s. Mind you, this is where the real debates happen and it is interesting to hear the seniors come up with absurd ideas, interpretations and random thoughts.

c)      The people around

There are two categories in Christ, the Law School-ites and the Party People’s Party, PPP (there are always exceptions for the people who can be seen somewhere on that scale but not at the extremes). I belong to the first group. We try all law school stuff and are enthusiastic about it. We want to make the school better. We want to bring it to the top category genuinely. We are the odd ones out in the class because most of the people belong to the second category. The second category comprises of the ones who are not so enthusiastic about being in a LAW SCHOOL. Law was just an option for them. Every free hour you can see them hanging out either in gourmet or food court. They take part in culturals, sports, etc.  So, the good part is, wherever Christ goes for the sports and culturals, they win and we get the ‘All-Rounders’ tag. And whenever Christ goes for mooting, client counseling and debating, the name can be seen amongst the top numbers even though not beside the number ‘1’. Firms like Trilegal, Laxmi Kumaran and Shridharan hired some smart people from the first batch that passed out (which was last year). Placements were also decent, in spite of the batch passing out from Bangalore University. The school is starting to get recognized. We’ve had seminars and guest lectures from eminent legal luminaries. Retired CJ of SC, Justice A.K. Ganguly (you should be aware of his name, he was recently in news) was one amongst them. The faculty is good, but they have to work hard to shove some things in not-so-interested minds which is a tough job. The infrastructure and the facilities we’ve got in Christ are remarkable. A library is an essential part of a law school. Christ has proved that it has got one of the best libraries.

3. Piece of advice to aspirants or future wannabe Christites.

All in all, Christ is a good law school (the statement is not biased because I am a part of it). An upcoming law school at a rapid rate. It trains you to be a professional. And when you have so many people studying different courses in one University (yes, I know the issue, let’s consider it as a University for time being), you will learn a lot of things from other courses also. But if you are a person who wants to go to classes in shorts and are not comfortable with wearing formals and salwars, Christ is not meant for you. If you cannot attend classes from 9 AM- 4 PM, and maintain you attendance above 85%, Christ is not meant for you. If you have disciplinary issues, it is certainly not meant for you. It’s a road less recommended. I am going be writing CLAT again. Not that the University is bad, but because the goals that I wish to achieve requires a different route.

All the best for the CLAT results. May you get into a school if that’s what you really wanted.

P.S.: “ThANk AsAd BhAI frgiVNg me diS opPrtNtY 2 tALk aBt maH ALMaMaTEr. MeANs a lt 2 me.” (I have always wanted to imitate others)

Vineet Hegde,
Batch of 2016,
Christ – School of Law.