This week, each of the winners in the below categories will win Rs 5,000 each. Congratulations to them all and a big thank you again to all bloggers for sharing your words of wisdom and wit with us all.
And check back soon for the final voting round for the really big prizes.
Funniest and/or most entertaining post (Rs 5,000)
nandiireywal: Weekly Round-up: BARELYLEGALINDIA. COM/ ISSUE 1
Most useful post (Rs 5,000)
LegalPoet: 15 CV TIPS: Make RECRUITERS pounce on you like DOGS ON BONES
Quality/skill of writing award (Rs 5,000)
folly_nariman: Mooting as the Professionals Do It :- Part I
The Judges and their choices
Again, all three acted in a purely personal capacity and closely followed the blogging competition since its start. Judges ignored reader comments, the popular vote and other judge's votes or views so far as possible to independently arrive at conclusions purely on the basis of the content. It was hard work – thanks again to all the judges.
Sanjay Bhatia
Sanjay Bhatia is the Mysore-based head of operations at legal process outsourcing (LPO) company SDD Global Solutions. He graduated from NLSIU Bangalore in 1993 where he was a particularly active participant in the "pre-historic equivalent of internet blogging" - the law school's iconic notice board "19(1)(a)". Between 1997 and 2000 Bhatia also wrote for the Hindu Business Line.Funniest/entertaining: The quality of all the blogs was very high indeed. Bihari Babu, False News With Balls and Legal Popat did make me chuckle. Several posts gave the above winning posts a run for their money. Special mention goes to the following posts which I thought were very well written but sadly finished a shade below the winners: folly_nariman Due Diligence and Dreaming Beyond It.; folly_nariman Catfight! (Where's the Popcorn?); Legalbeagle A lawyer's labour of love.; LegalPoet I Came. I Saw. I Changed. 17 THINGS that HIT you in an NLU. How to Prepare; LegalPoet INTERNSHIP: Hidden Camera reveals the INTERN, a name change and his DEATH; nandiireywal Weekly Round-up: BARELYLEGALINDIA. COM/ ISSUE 1; anirban1 Wit, whither wilt?
Most useful: In the most useful post category, LegalPoet was my winner all the way. All his posts made very useful reading to the entire "young law brigade" be it an aspiring law student, a present law student, or a junior lawyer. I thought that his post NLSIU? NUJS? NALSAR? The FASTEST, STRONGEST and the SEXIEST of law schools? was exceptional, because of the message it conveyed - that ultimately, each person is himself/herself responsible for what he/she achieves, and that your law school, or anything else for that matter, can only be a catalyst. This was in contrast to SSS' Jugaad, which though well written, missed out because of its pessimistic message. Jugaad may be a reality - but one must be careful not to blame JUGAAD for ones own failings. On another note, SSS's THE SEDUCTRESS THAT IS THE LAW was unique for its theme. It requires a lot of creativity to take a mythological story and weave it around an abstract concept called "Law”.
Quality of writing: Extremely difficult to choose because all the shortlisted blogs made very good reading. On a scale of 1-10, there was less than 2 points that separated the first from the last post. Folly's style of writing in Mooting as the Professionals Do It :- Part I is a good example if you want to write something funny. If you want to make fun of someone, let that someone be yourself. A well written humorous piece that is, or seems, self deprecating is a great recipe for success. Many writers choose to do the opposite - making fun of others. That too may raise a laugh, but everyone will not find that funny. Legalbeagle is a very talented writer. Both his poems were short, but brilliantly conveyed
the points he wanted to make. John2010's blog on How comrade whistle blower lost his ethical virginity addressed the most open secret in the profession - plagiarism - and the sheer futility to curb it. It does get checked occasionally, but in the larger context, plagiarism is rampant not just in the academia, but in the Bar, and I dare say, the Bench too, so much that it almost has an air of legitimacy surrounding it.
Aniket Sengupta
Aniket Sengupta is a Mumbai-based finance partner at Luthra & Luthra and a 2000 graduate from NLSIU Bangalore. Sengupta loves good writing. Catch-22 is one of his favourite books and Douglas Adams is one of his favourite authors.Funniest/entertaining: Weekly Round-up: BARELYLEGALINDIA. COM/ ISSUE 1. This is a seriously funny blog entry. Thoroughly enjoyed the humour, wit and the sarcasm, just the kind of entry which makes one wait in anticipation to read the blogger’s next entries. ‘Comment of the week [censored]’ takes the cake!
Most useful: 15 CV TIPS: Make RECRUITERS pounce on you like DOGS ON BONES. My clear favourite in this category. I am sure that many students would find his advice helpful. Further, the author also did some research and inserted links which may be useful to students. Very nicely written too. However, I must admit that while going through the entry, I was disagreeing (and still do disagree) with some of the tips, but then the post-script made me partial towards this entry and I had to choose this entry as the best. Pity that LegalPoet was not around during my law school days, to provide some tips! I do not know how LegalPoet’s CV looks, but I am sure that he has several career options – student counsellor and poet being two of them.
Quality of writing: Positive Interaction and my Observations. Undoubtedly, folly_nariman is one of the most talented writers in this competition. Creativity, vivid imagination and a good command over the language are some of the qualities that make a good writer and folly_nariman aptly demonstrates these qualities (and a great sense of humour) in this wonderfully written ‘Positive Interaction’.
Kian Ganz
Kian Ganz is the Mumbai-based editor of Legally India and loves a good blog post or three.
It didn’t get any easier this week.
Funniest/entertaining: Brevity is of course the soul of wit and humour much like beauty lies in the eye of the etc. But enough of the clichés, here are my very personal favourites. Perhaps I was a little biased in my choice of winning entry in this one, but nandiireywal’s Weekly Round-up: BARELYLEGALINDIA. COM/ ISSUE 1 was the post where I genuinely found myself laughing out loud and that even on re-readings. Genuinely creative stuff, pulling off the format and packaging very cleverly. Same with nandii’s The Recruit: Part 1 & The Recruit: Part 2, both of which were brilliant. The description of the journey to London, peppered with witty details, crescendoing into the most surreal interview documented thanks to the Reywal charm plus a surprising denouement. Again, chuckles aplenty. Nandii’s post Nostalgia by Modern Bob was also a close call for inclusion. Maybe again, I am biased, but this post really took me back to being a lawyer in the city of shiny-glass buildings and trains running to the right stations (sometimes). Brilliantly captured that frantic confusion of starting a training contract at a big international law firm with incredible eye for detail and textbook use of irony.
Now all of folly_nariman’s posts too were very, very funny so it was a tough choice on which one to include. Positive Interaction and my Observations was super witty and told its story imaginatively and really transported me to this twisted and surreal law school universe she built. Due Diligence and Dreaming Beyond It is also a classic as is Mooting as the Professionals Do It :- Part I.
I really like Legalbeagle’s writing style, particularly Ruses of a reluctant intern. His ditties remind me of old nursery rhymes and amuse me to no end. They are also snappy and surprising in their punchlines, as are the best of jokes. Same goes for his A lawyer's labour of love.
The following also had me smiling: Displaced Bong THE INDIAN UNCIVIL SERVICE...........AND THE RUSTED STEEL FRAME... (ultimately let down by sms speak and not good enough editing); LegalPoet’s INTERNSHIP: Hidden Camera reveals the INTERN, a name change and his DEATH (not a high enough density of fun per line but I really really liked Mohan!).
Useful: Hands down LegalPoet dominated this category with many of his posts. 15 CV TIPS: Make RECRUITERS pounce on you like DOGS ON BONES was probably the most useful thing that students can read on one of the most commonly asked questions: how do I get a job in a law firm? Discounting jugaad, this is the way it should be and the template every law student should (more or less) follow. A Murderer’s Interview: Nitish Saxena- He is Killing the NLU Pride: A fresh post and one that probably did more than any other to deal with CLAT stress and the national vs non-national debate. There is no doubt that some institutions give students an enviable advantage in the recruitment stakes, and it is a fact that some law firms will not even look at CVs that are not from a small number of the older national law schools but this post is pure inspiration and shows elegantly that it is ultimately you and not the institution that makes you. I Came. I Saw. I Changed. 17 THINGS that HIT you in an NLU. How to Prepare was also a close call for inclusion as a great general compendium of advice for those going to national (and non-national) law schools. Required reading that will take the edge off your first weeks and months, perhaps even years.
For me personally, sss’ JUGAAD was a very useful post and one of my favourites, although it could have been more tightly written and edited to make it more effective. I thought that this post addressed the part of India that people vaguely speak about but that is rarely pinned down properly. Being aware of jugaad can be dispiriting, but it is undoubtedly a reality and one that needs to be addressed and could do with other brave writers coming out and doing so. THE SEDUCTRESS THAT IS THE LAW was also very good and in contention.
Another post addressing the darker side of law school life was john2010’s When things go wrong..... who last week picked up the best student blogger prize. An outstanding post that should also be included in law school induction manuals. danishsheikh’s NALSAR Bound ? STOP. was also great but a little too focussed on Nalsar to make it in, although it does inspire a general state of mind that would be useful in looking at any law school.
Quality of writing: This one was very very hard. Ultimately, however, I thought 365 Days without 377 is the strongest overall writing in the competition and it is also one of the most moving, personal and honest posts. Yet it skilfully transcends the personal and captures the significance of the 377 judgment better than any jurisprudence or academic analysis ever could.
But to be honest the first prize could just as well have gone to either of folly_nariman and nandiireywal, both of whom are obviously excellent writers. Apart from subject matter, they are both master storytellers. The only fault in Folly’s Mooting as the Professionals Do It :- Part I was that there was no second part but this is a testament for how tightly the story and characters are woven in such a short time that one just needs to know what happens next. As for nandii’s The Recruit: Part 1 & The Recruit: Part 2 - there was rarely if ever a better story told about becoming a lawyer. Absolutely epic, 'nuff said. Both therefore deserving runners-up but any of their other posts could have also made it.
Another notable entry for me is Folly’s My Name is Unpatriotic and I am not a Terrorist, which I thought is one of the posts that actually advances its argument most rigorously, seriously and entertainingly. If Folly’s ever decides to write due diligence reports one day, they might actually be fun to read.
Also anirban1 has one of the best-written posts with Comfortably numb. For someone like me who has not yet spent any time in a Magistrate's Court, the description and atmosphere was brilliant but it was ultimately the post was pulled down by tiny details (punctuation and typos) and could have done with tightening.
Other notable mention deserved by Bihari Babuu's WHITE ROADS under Article 21 of the CONSTITUTION !!! A very clever post and well written in a voice that works, notwithstanding potential for political incorrectness.
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But I have serious issues with judging here: Kian, you really think that jugaad was helpful. How?
I also think you have a soft corner for underdogs: like picking 365 days as your best post.
@ Mr. Sengupta: please tell us what all things you disagree with in the 15 CV Tips. Will be helpful to the readers here. You can do it as a comment?
@1, John- Thank you and all the luck for the remaining categories.
@Fellow Bloggers- Many congratulations to Poet and Folly for winning the most useful and most-skilled categories(and to all the other briliant bloggers whose posts got a special mention by the judges.)
p.s. Special congratulations to my friend, the Legal Beagle, who has all the makings of a very fine poet!
In the cases of Jugaad and 377/365 what got me both times was their honesty and personal nature - something that many of the best and most powerful blogs in the world have in common.
These blogs, much like john2010's winning post last week, were courageous and honest, I learned a lot while reading them and thought they broke new ground.
Quality of writing is about more than just putting words together in a nice way, it's also about content and message that these words convey.
Usefulness is a very personal category also - and like I said, Jugaad is something that should be explored more openly and not just swept under the carpet.
Best,
Kian
John and Beagle: thank you and best of luck for the competition.
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