Of things lost...

Let’s just pretend that nothing’s happened and I have been blogging regularly. Just don’t want to start another of those posts with “It’s been ages since I blogged” etc.

But then, I guess something has indeed happened. The freedom, the intensity, the delightful immaturity that I had as a law student who cared for nothing in the world is now lost. Perhaps lost forever.

It’s been a year since I graduated out of law school and joined a law firm. Thought I would try and put together a balance sheet of what’s been lost:

1. Short, Nasty and Brutish – This is what Thomas Hobbes described the human nature as. And at times, and am sure many of my fellow law schoolites would vouch for it, this is exactly what I was – but well err as I would like to believe, in a rather nice way – So then that’s short, nasty, brutish and nice! Let’s sample an instance:

X and I were to make a mock moot court presentation for the benefit of the juniors. So yeah, it’s one of those excellent opportunities to look up all the new women who have been floating about the campus. And its also a very nice chance to brag and show off.

I argue first. X then argues, he is dignified, follows court etiquette and responds to my arguments with respect.

When I rebut, knowing very well that this is just a mock presentation, and that I can get away with it, I play to the gallery. I make wise-cracks on the “foolishness” of X’s arguments. I state “It is unfortunate that X has come to court with a brief that is full of holes – I hope that he gets better briefs next time”.

Had I done this in a real moot court, I would have been told to shut up and sit down. Well, it was no real moot court, and I won some brownie points from the juniors who were watching.

[A faculty who was watching the proceedings later told me that he had almost decided to get up and stop me from arguing any further]

So, well these were the kind of things I did merrily and without a care.

And sadly, I cant go around acting as a pompous ass in my present day avatar as a lawyer in a blue blooded law firm. So for starters, I miss being a pompous ass!

2. Immature, sexist comments – I have always had a big mouth. Had a comment on everything that happened. The thought process often began after a comment had been made. The effort then was to justify the comment.

Sadly, the process is reversed now – I have to think before I speak. And worse, I have come to realize that at times its better to keep the big mouth shut in a top tier law firm.

Even worse, my blogs – my posts – often had a suggestion of vice and sleaze. That’s the way I loved writing. The endeavor was always to be humorous with a sniff of sex, adultery and the like but without being obscene. Sample this for instance - Where art thou, my fair lady?,

Unfortunately, after having advised numerous clients on issues of sexual harassment – for the uninitiated – according to the Supreme Court, even a mildly obscene joke can amount to sexual harassment and after having come across many a case of men being dragged to courts, I have had to give up my style of prose!

And the worst, this blog was discovered by some of the partners of my firm. Now you don’t need me to tell you what a partner would think of an associate writing about scantily clad women in Australia!

3. The Argumentative Indian – Argue for argument’s sake. Take a ridiculous position like say, "females are more stupid, ‘cos they have smaller brains" [Borat, anyone?] and argue it out. After a point of time, I had come to realize that my thought process was influenced by what others said. For instance if X said that A was a fool, I would immediately start thinking and argue on how A was very intelligent! I just had to disagree with everything! And well again, I loved it!

If I try that now with a Senior Partner, I would be history.

The only people I get to argue with these days are Debanshu and the inimitable Mr. Banerjee - more on them later.

4. Overdose of Politeness – I always believed in writing brief and to the point. If I thought some position that X had taken was untenable. I would simply state that it is stupid and leave it that.

Now, if Y law firm says that their interpretation is such and such; I cant just that the interpretation is stupid. This is what I would have to say:

“Dear Y,

Many thanks for your comments. We have reviewed your interpretation of the contract. Please note that we believe that the said interpretation may not be tenable because…blah blah…blah. Please let us know what your views are. We would be happy to have a call to discuss this further.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries”.

All this just for saying, he is wrong and I am right! Sigh!

5. Time – Ah! 24 hours in law school meant 24 hours – there was time for everything – You could do your projects, participate in moots, flirt behind the bush, poke fun at teachers, play politics, make a scene about the mess food, go on a hunger strike, paint posters, shout slogans – there was just nothing that you couldn’t do for paucity of time.

Here, when if I manage to bill say 16 hours a day – am happy thinking – wow! I have billed 16 hours – and then I think you just have 8 hours left to sleep. Well, that’s what life is now!

PS: This is not to even remotely suggest that I am not happy these days. I am. Very much. But I guess, it’s a different kind of happiness. When I have figured it out, I will let you guys know!

The Women in my life!

Another one of those long breaks. But I always knew, I would get back here in the end. And here I am.

I thought I would write something about all the women in my life who have been of some consequence so far. Mind you, by women in my life, I do not mean relationships involving a romantic interlude, we just could have good friends, or at times even two people who could not bear the sight of each other. So here I go and in no particular order:

1. Dusky Beauty: Probably the first crush of my life! A completely sinless, lust less, pure period of infatuation that perhaps is possible only when one is young enough to be completely innocent. We were classmates. Am still in touch with her. She has done well in life, she was always one of those achievers.

2. Miss Graceful: A very nice young lady who epitomises all that is good about women: caring, kind and graceful. Again classmates. This time, a crush that was supposedly mutual. Still in touch, and good friends.

3. Damsel in Distress: That's the state in which she was when I first met her. If I tell you, where I met her, the identity would be revealed. I thoroughly enjoyed long conversations with her late into the night. One of a kind, philosophical and a person you can keep talking to. In touch on and off.

4. The Phoenix: Classmates. Soul mates, at a point of time. Shared the darkest secrets. And then force majeure happened, and she drifted away. Never closed that gap again. She came back strongly from a personal crisis though. Read something about her in the newspapers the other day, she has done extremely well. Not in touch.

5. Brainy Beauty: Classmates. We loathed each other to the core in the initial years. Slowly, that turned into mutual admiration and then a genuine liking for each other. One of those women, who have had a lot of role to play in my life, in a particular period. A bit of a tom boy, intelligent, witty and charming. Still in touch and very good friends.

6. Mis-s-understood: Shared mutual crushes, but sadly at different points of time! So nothing came of it. Were again good friends at some time. But then, lack of communication has led to a lot of misunderstandings. Somebody who can easily cheer you up, kinda happy go lucky and jovial. Not really in touch.

7. Potter's Luck: Started talking seriously to each other only because of a shared liking for Harry Potter. Somebody who has always been there whenever I wanted. Lucky that I found her and know that I can rely on her for times to come! Intelligent, witty and cute, still in touch!

8. Donna Karan: Fellow law schoolite. Stylish, beautiful and an excellent companion. Another one of them, who's been always ready to lend a helping hand. Has been a very good friend and still is!

9. Net's Angel: Got to know each other, thanks to gtalk. A delightful person to speak to, could easily share all of my "intellectual jokes". Another one of those women, who re instills my personal belief, that all women are inherently good creatures! Excellent friends and very much in touch.

10. Words aint enough to describe the woman who has had the greatest influence on me. She's just too special. Would just sing along with Dylan and say:

If not for you,
Babe, I couldn't find the door,
Couldn't even see the floor,
I'd be sad and blue,
If not for you.

If not for you
My sky would fall,
Rain would gather too.
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all,
I'd be lost if not for you,
And you know it's true.

If not for you,
Winter would have no spring,
Couldn't hear the robin sing,
I just wouldn't have a clue,
Anyway it wouldn't ring true,
If not for you.

Delhi Doodles II

It all started with people telling me how very excellent and convenient the Delhi Metro was. I had heard so much about it that I very badly wanted to try out the Metro. But unfortunately, South Delhi were I stayed is yet to be connected by the Metro. So finally, one fine (read hot) Sunday morning, I set out with Nair to seek out the Metro. All we knew was that we could board it from CP. Now, CP is not exactly what you call a small place! So after tottering around for about half an hour we finally found the 'Rajiv Chowk' Metro Station. Till that moment, I was highly skeptical about people who told me that the Metro was 'world class' and blah blah. The first challenge, once inside the station was to choose a destination! After gazing for a while at the excellent sign boards and list of destinations that the station very conveniently provided, we settled upon 'Chandni Chowk'. After taking the 'token', and with a wide grin plastered on our faces for successfully negotiating an hitherto unfamiliar system of tokens and token operated gates, we boldly walked to the platforms! The platforms had electronic boards displaying a count down for the arrival of the next train. We found ours was due in 2 minutes, and exactly in 2 minutes we heard and saw the Metro Car! Well, as usual in India, and as to be expected, after a bout of pushing, jostling and elbowing we finally found ourselves inside the Car. We reached Chandni Chowk in about 7 minutes and the journey was very comfortable. The air conditioning inside the train and the station is just perfect. If you find yourself in Delhi, with nothing to do on a hot summer day, I would suggest that you go and sit in one of the Metro Stations!

And yes, the Delhi Metro is indeed world class, and as I kept repeating to Nair, it is as good as, if not better that the Metros I have seen in Sydney and the Trams in Geneva.

Chandni Chowk is a treat even on the hottest of days. Today in Chandi Chowk you find shops that are centuries old jostling for space between brand new Mc Donald outlets! The sounds, the sights, the smell, the people, the market, the shops, the rickshaws, the newly commissioned CNG buses to run exclusively in Chandi Chowk, everything about it is distinct, you have to be there to experience it.



At one end of the main street of Chandni Chowk, is the majestic Red Fort. The moment I saw it, I knew it is going to be day well spent! This post is already quite long and I would not bore with a lot of historical details. But the place is definitely worth a visit.

You are transported to a completely different world once you enter the towering gates of the Fort. A world as rich in history as it is in beauty!

Once you finally manage to look away from Shah Jahan's famous White Marble Throne, you would then be mesmerized by the intricate and very beautiful designs on the pillars:

We also came across the 'Bathing Chambers' of the Queen and her maids. A guide nearby was explaining to his group, how the Chambers had provisions for hot, cold and even perfumed water. We did try to peek inside one of the windows of the said Chambers, but it was too dark and dusty and we didnt see anything exotic!

I could go on and on. But I would rather, if you are ever in Delhi, pay the Fort a visit. The Fort also has a light and sound show in the evening which is definitely a treat to watch! Once outside the Fort we decided to get lost in one those very narrow streets which are so very common in Chandni Chowk. We walked for about 10 minutes and we found ourselves in Chawri Bazaar. Once you are in Chawri Bazaar, one thing you just cannot miss is the Jama Masjid. Its huge and its beautiful.The courtyard of the mosque can be reached from the east, north and south by three flights of steps, all built of red sandstone.It is the principle mosque of Old Delhi and a very beautiful example of Mughal Architecture.

Well, finally we took the Metro back to CP from Chawri Bazar and ended the day in style with a few delightful hours spent at the India Gate and then a sumptuous dinner at Oh! Calcutta. A day very well spent, though I did miss somebody the whole day!

Delhi Doodles - I

Many people warned me against it. They said the Delhi summers are too hot, stories on how people died because they got the loo in their ears were recounted to me in graphic detail. But then I decided to risk it, and boy am glad I did it!

Well officially I was in Delhi for my summer internships. And not 1, not 2 but three internships one after the other in 2 and a half months! It all went well, the first one was with Chief Justice of India, which turned out to be the best internship I have ever done. The other two were with law firms widely regarded to be the best in the country: Amarchand Mangaldas and then J Sagar. The internship story can however wait. This is just Part I of Delhi Doodles!

One of my favourite past-times in Delhi was to sample all the food joints and pubs there. And in this post, I would venture to rate a few of them that I liked.

1. Pebble Street, New Friends Colony:

Pebble Street is a 96 cover restaurant, styled and portrayed in the form of a street, with a distinct European feel; serving Continental, Italian, Mexican and Indian delicacies. Well its in fact a cross between a restaurant and a pub. The ambiance is excellent. And the sea-food they serve is the best I have had in Delhi! If you ever go there, and if you like sea food, I would recommend highly their Nasi Goreneg, its an Indonesian Sea-Food Fried Rice. And of course their draught is good too. I would also recommend their Martini Classic if you are a cocktail fan. Finally, if I have anything against them, its the way they discriminate against foreigners and Indians. Indians wearing shorts and sandals are not allowed in but a foreigner, even if s/he is next to naked, is welcomed in! Sigh!
Rating: 7/10

2. Pind Baluchi, Lajpat Nagar


Frequented this restaurant because it was the closest to the place I was putting up. Though I didn't know it at first, I later found out that 'Pind' means a village. Well, the restaurant is indeed modelled after a village with a huge tree right in the centre. The cuisine of course was Punjabi and the food was good. The best thing however about the restaurant was the value for money! You can have a very good meal without burning a hole in your pocket. I would specially recommend their lassi to to everybody who enjoys this drink.
Rating: 8/10

3. TGIF, Connaught Place


For die hard fans of TGIF, well its just like any other TGIF. The décor - the ambiance, the memorabilia, significant memorabilia like the propeller and racing
scull, the music and the flair all add to make it a distinct experience. I learnt later that the music is recorded specially for Friday’s® and is uniform for all outlets worldwide. I didn't however enjoy the pastas that I sampled here. Would recommend it only if you find yourself in CP with nothing to do and lots of money to burn!
Rating: 6.5/10

4. Oh! Calcutta, Nehru Place



Decided to explore this place after I read a review about it in 'First City', Delhi's own magazine! First City opined that its a first class place and after I checked out Oh! Calcutta, I decided to buy 'First City' every month 'cos every word written about it was true. The cuisine is mainly Bengali as is obvious from the name. The ambiance is too good. It has these perfect wood panelled cool interiors, with high roofs and comfortable leather chairs, not to mention the beautiful paintings and artifacts all around! Even the plates and cutlery are works of art!The best place to spend a hot summer afternoon. The food is excellent, I have enjoyed every dish I have had at this place and I have been here quite a few times, always trying different dishes.
Finally, a few last words, the place is expensive and yes, it does serve alcohol. For Bongs out there, if you are in Delhi, its a must visit, and for the others like me, I am sure you would enjoy it too!
Rating: 9/10

5. Ego Obsession, New Friends Colony

A woody ambiance with excellent Italian food. If you love Italian, go for it. Again, a place with lovely interiors. The place is full on weekends, if you are looking for a quite getaway, try it some weekday! In a city where calm is precious, Ego offers a low-lighted room decked with big, comfortable couches, lush plants and a D.J. who plays an eclectic mix of Hindi and Western pop. Cocktails are 200 rupees and up.
Rating: 8/10

6. Eatopia, Habitat Centre


Indian, Chinese, Continental whatever you care for, you would find it here. The India Habitat Centre's non-member restaurant is one good place to spend time, have food and still leave the place with something jingling in your pockets! Their pastries, custards and fruit puddings are specially recommended. Well, they don't serve cocktails. But if there is a day when you don't feel like drinking, and if you are some place nearby Lodhi Road, do give it a try. You would not be disappointed. And if you are loaded, do walk in to the American Diner, which is also a non-member restaurant at the Habitat Centre. The breakfast there is something to look forward to, if you like full fledged continental breakfasts!
Rating: 8/10

Finally, there was this one thing which I could have any day, any time. Barista's Earl Grey Tea!

And before I forget, a million thanks to Arya, Srikant, Shrijith, Debanshu, Aparna & Shweta for their excellent company without which I would not have enjoyed these places!

Of Scooters and Khakis!

Been almost a year since my last post. I offer no explanations.

I have been up to quite a few many things in the last one year. Had major disappointments. Felt cheated many a time. Cried. Laughed. Won. Conquered. Lost.

But one thing which I always wanted to do was to learn how to ride a two wheeler! Though I have a license for a four wheeler, I don't have one for a two wheeler. So one fine morning this year, thanks to Sreejith, who owns a Honda Activa and to Marcus who agreed to be my riding instructor, I set out out on the Activa and lo! within a week I had mastered the inticracies of the fine art of balancing and driving the Activa!

Thereafter, it was few weeks of pure bliss. Even to go to go to the next shop over the corner, I would take the Activa! It would have been all bliss ever after had not the eye of the Khaki draped homo sapien had fallen on me.

It happened one fine evening, when I was taking my friend (oh! forgot to tell you, nowadays even if somebody else wants to go to the shop around the corner, I offer them a lift!). So as I was saying, I was taking this friend for dinner someplace, when we got caught in this traffic jam with the red light reading some three digit figure. That's when the arm of the law suddenly appeared from nowhere and snatched the keys off the Activa. I turned to find a lanky clad Khaki representing the majesty of the law in all its glory grinning at me.

For starters, he asked me if I had a license. By the time we reached entree' he had figured out that the Activa had absolutely no papers. And for dessert he after making some quick calculations, told me that the entire fine would only amount to about a 1000 rupees.

Another day. Another time. This time, we had gone to pack dinner from someplace and this time, I had not one, but two friends on the Activa! And this time, when I saw the arm of the law stretching forth, I tried to change route and speed away, but unfortunately in another second, I figured out that I was surrounded by a haze of Khakis in all sides!

This time, they didn't ask any questions. They immediately started writing on that small book of theirs and after a few minutes gave me a piece of paper asking me to appear before a Magistrate, pay the fine and then take the vehicle from the Court!

A few words. A few greased hands. I got my vehicle and I saw no Magistrate.

But then, these days I don't drive much!

Intra-Moot, Geneva and Indigestion!

It all started with the Intra-Moot of 2005 which was held to select people and teams to represent the law school at various competitions. As I had blogged earlier, though I expected to be in first five, I came a distant 10th in it. This meant that I would not be able to compete in the most prestigious moot competitions.

Well, though I finished 10th, my team with Debanshu Mukherjee and Sudhanshu Roy was arguably one of the best teams of the University. So as I was saying we did form this team and we sat and watched as the people ranked higher above us walked away with the best competitions. And then, one fine morning we discovered that ELSA-WTO Moot Court Competition on WTO laws was going international for the first time. None of us did know a thing about WTO laws other than the fact that WTO stood for World Trade Organization. Now the competition was such that, there were first to be Regional Rounds and only if a team would win the Regional Rounds could it participate in the World Finals to be held in Geneva. We decided to give it a shot.

The moot problem was released and we read it. We again read it, and we read it again for a dozen times without being able to make head or tail out of it. We were referred to a 'WTO Expert' in Chennai and we immediately dashed of to Chennai which at that time was under incessant rains. After buying umbrellas at the first available shop and taking off my shoes and putting on newly bought sandals and after getting every damn cloth we were wearing wet, we finally found the 'expert'. The 'expert' had one book on WTO which was of no use to our moot. Well, not one to give up so easily, the 'expert' lectured unto us for more than an hour on general international law which again was of no use to our moot. We sincerely thanked the 'expert' and took the next available bus to Bangalore.

Now, the reason we went to Bangalore is that there is this thing called the National Law School of India University which has a good library. Well, the library was indeed good and it is there that we made the first step towards cracking the problem. We collected every material we could find. We also made a trip to the IIM-B and collected some material from there as well. Some amount of research was also done at the other law schools in the country.

Finally with a truck load of material we returned to HNLU. We again read the problem, and night after night we kept doing it. Finally one night, an article we had collected helped us crack one of the issues. From then on it was pretty smooth sailing.

Now the Regional Rounds for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and 13 other countries were to be held in New Delhi and the first two teams were to progress to Geneva. Well due to the wonderful 'resourcefulness' and 'managerial skills' of the Regional Organiser, the International Organising Committee cancelled the Regional Rounds and declared that the two teams would be selected on the basis of written submissions that we had already sent.

The International Organising Committee made us keep our fingers crossed for almost a month and one fine afternoon we got an e-mail stating that we and NUJS, Kolkata were selected for the World Finals. Though this called for much celebration, the reality hit us soon, we had less than a month to arrange for around Rs 2 lakhs for our trip to Geneva.

Letters detailing on how 'extra-ordinary brilliant', 'hard-working' and 'bright' the three of us were was soon to dispatched to various law firms, NGOs and WTO affiliated bodies. Some of them did not even care to reply, some replied with a single line that they could not give funds and some gave us a detailed reply explaining on the various other programs they were involved in and how all the money they make are spent of these programs and so even though they wanted to help us they were unable to do so. We also sent a letter to the state government of Chhattisgarh which has always been at the front in supporting the teams from the University.

That's when we had one of our usual brainwaves. Why don't we go to the Allahabad Bank, the official banker of the University, the one which has around Rs 12 crores of the University as fixed deposits. So we met the Chief Manager and our Vice Chancellor and explained with cool mathematics that with our deposit of 12 crores they would easily be making a profit of atleast Rs 80 lakhs every year and therefore, they have a moral responsibility to support a bright team like ours! Well, to cut a long story short we finally got Rs 28,000/- from the bank.

The next brainwave was to approach Jindal Power and Steel Plant which had one of its largest plants in Raipur the same city as our law school. The justification was the law school and Jindal are located at Raipur, there is a need for co-operation between the two institutions in 'mutually beneficial areas'. We managed Rs. 30,000/- from Jindal.

We had one day left to take the train to Mumbai to board our flights, when thanks to Debasnhu, we got Rs 90,000/- from the state government. The Vice-chancellor was also kind enough to give us Rs 10,000/- from the University. So we had Rs 1,58,000/- in toto which we though just might be enough.

So we did get into the train to Mumbai and then we did board the flight to Zurich and from there we did board the flight to Geneva. We arrived in Geneva on 25 April 2006. The first thing we noticed in Geneva was that a decent meal would cost as around 11 swiss francs and not 3-4 francs as we thought it would be. We had counted on 3-4 swiss francs meal and had booked our tickets back to India for the 5th of may allowing ourselves a few days for sightseeing.

Well, the mooting started on 26th and by the time it finished on 29th we were on the verge on insolvency! So we called up swissair and said that we would be flying back on the 1st of May instead on the 5th. Now if you have heard of stealing from beggars, that's exactly what swissair did, they charged as around 90 francs each for pre-poning our tickets!

About the moot, we did not do as well as we wanted to do. We finished in the top 8, but all the three of us knew in the back of our heads that had we practiced a lil more, we could have done better. But all said and done, we did the best practice we could in between running all around the country first for research and then for funds.

Well all through the moot I had this problem of indigestion, I just could not eat anything there. I was surprised cos I had a great liking for continental dishes. Added to this, I never felt like moving out of our hotel room and looking around, I just wanted to lie in my bed! I though this was 'cos I did not eat anythin much.

Finally, we put our feet back on Indian soil and even after I reached home I had this problem with digestion. After a couple of days of taking medicines for digestion, I finally went to a doctor, who in a couple of minutes concluded that I had jaundice and that I have had it for almost 2 weeks!

Well, so I did create history in Geneva, I was probably the only mooter with jaundice to argue!

The First Anniversary!

Well, Just for the Heck of it had its first post on 27 December 2004. So today I complete one year of being in blog world. Its been a fascinating journey, making new friends, discovering new things and getting to read the very best literary masterpieces. So its a BIG Thank You from me to all ye faithful readers for a wonderful year. I gotta specially mention the names of Padayatty and Silverine. Padayatty was the one who told me that something like blogs existed and he is the one who bears all responsibility and liability for any adverse consequences of any of my posts! And Silverine is the one who actually kept me alive in the blogosphere by commenting on every single and even on the dumbest of my posts! So a special Thank you to both of you!