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14 April 2011
Student life

Being a law school student means getting enlightened about various laws for a continuous period of 5 yrs, from cases where some stupid insect was found in Beer bottle that led to whole lot of hoopla regarding it and a resulting landmark case slapped on students, to cases of breach of contract, to promissory estoppels. Furthermore, studying many confusing notions, encountering situations when you feel like murdering the professor to see whether its culpable homicide or murder while he is trying to make you understand the difference between the two! There is so much more to it, sleepy classes of Procedural laws, complexities of Constitutional law, times when mind stops interpreting while reading Interpretation of Statues or the burden of Tax laws!

Well, can’t disagree that this only makes us a lawyer, because when we talk, instead of blaming someone for carelessness, we blame for “negligence”, things doesn't happen itself but “per se”, people are not responsible for their conduct but “liable”. The trust is not broken but “breached”. We don’t break the hostel rule but “infringe” them! We don’t notice something but take “cognizance, we don’t call people but “summon” them and people who think ill of us have “mens rea” against us!
This is just to mention the few enhancements in vocabulary law school brings, apart from that we get a great sense of empowerment, as we threaten any outsider who try to mess with us! When at home we threaten to sue almost everyone, from suing the friend for assault while having a fight with him to suing sister under promissory estoppel, thanks to our empowering profession!
Not to forget we are not only empowered but we are also acquainted with many dignitaries. Individuals like Seervai, P.N. Bhagwati, Kelkar, Mulla, Takwani, Hidayatullah etc etc. seems like next door neighbor, just a call away (well, that’s actually right, they are just waiting in for us library!!).
Apart from that we have our amazing interpretive and analytical skill. While for an engineering student, selecting between blue or black will be an easy choice, for a lawyer it will start from the determination whether there is blue or black and then on what criteria can we select between blue or black, which doctrine to apply, which test to refer to and then finally, a lawyer will decide that it can be blue if it is not black or it is black subject to this and that conditions. Well, got confused? Exactly, this is what law school curriculum does to law student and teaches them. There is a saying in this regard, “If you can’t convince the judge, confuse him”. Well as of now we have not reached the stage of confusing the judge but it’s the opposite case, i.e. judgments like Mahabharata confusing us! But no doubt we have become adept in confusing any “non-lawyer”.
While mentioning the special characteristic of law students, how can we forget the academic insects we are, to start with, the projects, and “plagiarism”, the word that comes as a bonus package with it! Trust me, very few people from non legal field know its meaning, but poor us are subjected to its constant constrain. The students generally don’t even make notes, but we even have to make “footnotes” in our project because we CANNOT plagiarize. The academic eulogizer we are, conferences, paper presentation, journals, we do all of these. The piles of books and sections of Act, so aptly characterize a law school student. On the first day of college, the vast journal section freaked me out, that time I didn’t even know how, why and what of them!
So, at the end, we bask in glory of our own story which is Greek and Latin to everyone apart from us! Crack lame legal jokes, freak out, and as law school makes us do, we work like ass and party like an animal (moral of the story is at end of the day, you are an animal, though a legal one!). Well, but I think that is what makes us special and different from the crowd, the empowering and entertainingly engaging nature of our profession J
Source: http://lawschoolsterrace.blogspot.com/2011/02/being-law-student.html
27 February 2011
Student life

As entering into High School most of the students are over burdened with the career choices, mulling on a billion dollar question on deciding their own destiny, the incessant enthusiasm for making into the Indian Institute of Technology and craving for being the few blessed one’s among the million desirous freaks, leaves one at the trauma center of Theorems and not so equalizing equations.

Every once in generation there were men who changed the destinies of the world as Abraham Lincoln, Barrack Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, P. Chidambaram , among them one of them remarkably said be the change you want to see in the world. In this knowledge age, where information is freely exchanged, it won’t be hard to come across the realities behind the career options. All of us must be aware about the global economic crunch, where layoff’s and pink slips became the slogan of the day. As the world saw the companies shrinking and adapting retrenchment strategies, it became hard for university graduates finding a reasonable employment, even for the ones at premier engineering or management institutes. As we know there always exists a safe harbor, so in the gloomy light of global recession the demand for doctors and lawyers never declined, but the biggest profiteers emerged were lawyers, as companies amalgamated to save businesses or the persistent filling of bankruptcies, thereafter the shareholder grievances provided opportunity for law firms to dig gold in the days of starvation. Even when the business cycle turns to the prosperity i.e., in the days of boom, further business opportunities furthers the demand for lawyers for subsequent capital market issues and other regulatory procedures. If you want to know the deeper reality, we won’t hesitate to enlighten you by the pay figures for lawyers, which can no way be in comparison to that of engineers or doctors , only competition exists is with the best of B- school’s which is a Post Graduate course. If anyone wants to enter into a B-school after law school then career is sky rocketing. But you want find most of the lawyers doing MBA , the reason behind this is that many lawyers find their career turnaround after becoming partners(a designation above the associate) at the law firms with compensation of not just the salary but also the share of profits.

Entering into a law school strengthens the potentials for one to be empowered with knowledge of rights and duties. Five year law schooling is integration of two degrees such as BBA or BA with LLB. A student at law school gets to write articles for world’s reputed journals, participate at Parliamentary Debates, or get to act as nation ambassadors at Model United Nations Forum, participate in world class moot courts depicting the International Court of Justice and conferences of intellect discussions. Along with internship opportunities at United Nations, National Commission’s, Supreme Court and Law firms, these opportunities only energizes one’s potentials and transforms ones personality. Hence, being the most promising five year plan.

Prior to 2008, every law school in country conducted its own entrance exam, thereafter with the direction of Supreme Court of India to conduct an integrated exam for entrance to various national law schools, resulted into formation of CLAT – Common Law Admission Test on the lines of CAT – Common Admission Test for Indian Institute of Management (IIM’s) or IIT – JEE for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT’s). The brand of NLS or national law school is as of today no less than that off IIT’s. The students of national law school’s proudly call themselves national law schoolite or better than IITian’s.

At present there are 11 Law schools under CLAT and also increasing of NLU’s number conduct their national wide own entrance exam. With the envision of NLU or National Law University in every state of India, the popularity of National Law Schools are day by day increasing and forming a league of its own.

CLAT is a 200 mark examination, questioning on 5 areas such as English, General Knowledge, Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Legal Aptitude. Those one’s of you who were terrified at 10 + 2 Math’s exams, need not to be scared as here the questioning is on basic arithmetic of Profit & Loss and Simple Calculations which can be performed even by a 10th standard student very successfully. The new areas for a test taker are Logical Reasoning and Legal Aptitude. It’s advisable for you to remain Bold & Beautiful, so you can happily tame CLat to enter into a law school.

 

11 February 2011
Student life

hello everybody,

though my hello sounds good, but am very upset at the moment... yesterday, L.L.B 1st term results of campus law center came out and it was utterly shocking! so many bright students who had immense knowledge about the subjects got mediocre marks compared to the students who just crammed dukkies by Dr. A.K Jain and secured wonderful marks.

In fact, i wrote my criminal law-1 exam so very good but got the least marks in it! I even discussed my paper with my lecturer and she was also shocked to the state of affairs existing in DU. Why is this system of checking so dependent on the luck of the students? Why do 2 0r 3 people out of 100 need to become the unfortunate victims?

I don't understand where the problem lies. Shall i focus more on knowledge or cramming dukkies? This is very discouraging.

Do you have anything to say?

10 February 2011
Student life

Finally the results are out!!!!!Myself been always slow learner and low retention was not expecting any miracles in my tyrst with Law.Before the results were out my friend spread a rumor that if you get more than 2 KT you wont be allowed to appear in next semester.

I was shocked to hear this ,my strategy in exams were always quantitative masala rather than some qualitative .One thing i learned in my YUM BI YEH is that size does matter in whichever field you are, "nuisance has its own value ".

My friend a CS and myself YUM BI YEH got in to law with the thought that jo kuch nahi karta woh law karta hai..(no offence to any bdy).To keep my bachelor status intact i thought law is best option.

Finally results were out online my entire group including myself failed .Ab tension ki how many subjects we failed??My friend said "main life main kabhi fail nahi hua??"

I consoled him " aree yeh toh kuch nahi main engineer studies main 10 kt li thi?"

He asked phir,I replied casually " maine engineering chood di"

He was pissed off !!!!

Finally we both prayed to Almighty " Boss ek ya do KT do(was sounding like parivar niyojan ad ek ya do bus) ?plsss aaj tak kuch nahi manga aur abhi bhi success nahi god aapse failure mang rahe hai??? ab ismain kanjoosi mat karna!!!!!

We were suprised when we saw the results only 1 kt ..Bhagwan ne meri sun li!!!

My friend got KT in labour law..and myself in Contract !!!God was generous to one of my friend usko 3 main lagi but he said koi gal nahi full monty nahi hua ...

....to be continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

06 February 2011
Student life

After sapping my precious time on an insignificant portal like AIM; I spent an entire day brooding about my inadvertent lack of self control. To add up to this trauma I realized it was a mid week crisis i.e. Wednesday. I wanted to yell my frustration out. I was fed up with my online obligations. So while I was vulnerable I saw Aadil (my best friend) and Shiffa (my cousin) barging in. I was in no mood of any offline interaction so I ignored both of them.



But ignoring them was of no recourse as they were right on my face. I knew they were up to something and I was ready for it. “We are going to Malana,” Aadil clamored with a sinister smile. For the first time in my life I had heard something spontaneous and fun from him.



I wanted to be a part of this trip but I was a bit uncertain. I was grounded for not paying the electricity bill. Like can anyone comprehend this intricate stuff? You get your thing busted in a law college for five months and when you are back to your place for an escape; you realize you can get grounded for not paying an electricity bill. Wow! I just love my parents. They always have something new in store for me.



I did my first part time job when I was in 8th grade. I pushed myself into 2 part time jobs when I was in 11th, so I know how things are done. Sadly I was going through a stark financial crisis. I did a bit of negotiation with Aadil and Shiffa who agreed on inviting me on an all expense paid trip to the ‘Oldest democracy of the world- Malana’, also famous for its ‘Malana Cream.'


                        


The trip started right from Shimla where we had a friend Ramit waiting for us. The only reason for taking Ramit along was that no person can enter Malana village without being invited by someone from the village itself (Malana is a very conservative village) and Ramit had his roots in Malana. Off-course you can get to the village without the invitation formality; through the tour agencies but then you will not be able to experience the real thing.




Malana village is situated 2652m above sea level and is a tiny hamlet which has been in long isolation until it was discovered by the foreigners. Since Malana is an isolated place the best option is to avail private transportation while travelling to the village of Malana. We opted for taxi from Manali. The trek starts at Kasol, and initially it's an easy ascent, but by the time one reaches Rashol (which is a bit higher) the tiredness sets in. So take my advice start early and you can reach the place in just 3 hours.



As we were about to enter the village Ramit told us not to touch any wall or stone or even spitting as we could get ourselves fined up to 1000 bucks. He also advised us not to talk to any villager to avoid any trouble as there was no police station or the cops in the village. So it was comprehended to me since I didn’t want to get myself into hot waters. 



With the first glimpse that I got of the village I said to myself 
“yaaaaaaaaar yeh kya hai?”(dude what’s this?). I mean it was so captivating, like it was pure, clean and so beautiful. There was a chill in the breeze and it felt like I was sitting in an AC in the month of July. Now I realize why this village is attracting backpackers from around the globe.


    


Luckily we met Ramit’s uncle who played his perfect part as a story teller. He told us that the entire land of the village is in the name of the local deity, Jamlu Devta. I also came to know the reason why this village is known as the oldest democracy of the world. It  has an impeccable system of administration with a higher and lower court guided by the spirit of village God Jamlu. Malana stands out as an autonomous self-sufficient unit whose inhabitants claim Greek ancestry, (I was dumbstrucked- Himalaya main Greek ancestry?). These guys have their own upper house known as Jayeshthang and lower house known as Kanishthang. Impressive, isn’t it? The village is practically immune from Indian laws, police or any central or state governing body. 



     


The village has a very secretive thing to it and it’s a unique culture just makes it different from other hotspots of the country: that too without being given any publicity.


What makes me sad is that the village is not known for being the oldest democracy of the world or for it's cultural heritage but for being nothing more than a drug production facility. Which I feel is not true as the people there have moved on and are trying to find alternate career options (so to say) like growing cash crops and it is commendable because the people in the village had never-ever grown anything legal till now. But what’s really hard to change is the image that the world has of this village.



We had the total stay of about 3 days in the village and I had some really wonderful time with Greek descendants (he-he); heard some amazing stories. I wanted to write more but as you can see the blog is way too long so I need to conclude but before I conclude I gotta say: 'I love you Malana and I will be back next June'.




P.S.


Whenever you plan out a trip to Malana avoid being too effusive and shaking hands with the villagers as you can get yourself fined up to 1000 bucks. Also maintain a group of at least 10 people, as there had been cases of travelers going missing in the valley. In our case we had Ramit who is from the village itself, so it was cool with us. Also do not forget to bring good resolution cameras along, because if you don’t you will regret leaving Malana without good clicks.






scarecrow



Read: 'Bee Ye- Yell Yell Bee- Story of A God Forsaken Girl'

05 February 2011
Student life

What goes inside any layman when he come across a lawman, that how good is it to be a lawyer knowing the law and all about it. But the pith of the profession is skill of finding the law, not knowing it and then understanding is must as it’s always an edge. One question that always come to mind whenever talked about law is, whether law is an art or science. Well it is a matter of choice. Rather than imaging black and white, we should see the grey in between. I personally think that it has dual nature, we regard it as a form of art as long as it checks our oratory, debating and mooting skills whereas is science when it comes to experimentation, researching and other science dependencies. In your first year at law school you study legal history. I once, remember being asked by a curious, What role does history play in enforcement of law and order. Being rational in his approach he added, we say law is dynamic and changes with changing facets accordingly. It was a reasonable question although no law and order is possible without sound knowledge of its history or origin. Necessity is regarded as mother of inventions. Such necessities can be re-derived only with good knowledge of history. At the same time legal history reflects the retrospective nature of law which simultaneously gives it a prospective touch.

04 February 2011
Student life

Ever wondered how a newfangled term became such an integral part of our life that in an event there is always a sense of uncertainty unless this so called technology is applied, how it has affected our life that even for trifles we rely on such methods.
It is always hard to define who ‘Mr. JUGAAD’ actually is. Some regard him as an immoral methodology applied to achieve targets where as others call him a smart way to accomplishment. So we may call it a matter of chance or two different faces of the same coin, one leading to mishaps like multi-million infrastructural scams, corruption etc. whereas other towards smart works like execution of more in very less. Some common examples of the former can be seen at the time of recruitments to government office which by all means is said to be true and fair but never actually is. But yeah it is fair for those who has special recommendation of ‘Mr. JUGAAD’.
No ‘Mr. JUGAAD’, no office for you. Generally ‘Mr. JUGAAD’ comes in several disguise namely power, property, money etc. If ever measured the value of ‘Mr. JUGAAD’ against merit, no doubt the ball will lie in ‘Mr. JUGAAD’s’ court.

03 February 2011
Student life

Remember the last day of your school life when you were all set to enter into new shoes leaving that you wore for past twelve valuable years. It felt as if we have achieved everything when we hold up our first degree certificate licensing us to join the bar. We are extremely happy to see something new, something good and challenging ahead in life and in all those joyous moments we never missed our school for once but as soon as we moved to a new institution we realized its importance in almost every aspects whether it was in terms of our childhood memories, our friends that we made, the kind of treatment we got from our teachers, which now a days is globally acclaimed that Indian institutions has the best possible teacher-student relationship, or the social, civic or moral values that we learned. As I talked in my last post ‘We miss it only when lose/leave it’.
It was the time for a fresh start, when every one tried to the best of their abilities to make to one of the finest institutions of the country or abroad. Some made it to good colleges and rest to an average one. As there is no bad institution reason being it raises question over integrity of the affiliating bodies like BCI, UGC etc. which determines their existence. Once you are accustomed with your surrounding you see two phases of a law school firstly you see college somewhat standing up to your expectations and secondly you are trying to be an exception to be accepted as per their expectations i.e, you now realize that you were not meant to be here but you are an unnecessarily imposed liability over the reputation of an institution by your conscience. Which leads you to ruin your career simultaneously ruin someone else’s reputation.
Every institution has its merits and demerits, some may be good at academics but bad at infrastructure. But do you think these things actually matters at any point of time in future. Well, I don’t think so, what actually matters is you and yourself. You meaning hereby your personality, the way you have been groomed up with best of personality, communication skills and spontaneity, and yourself is your ability to fight with the adversities, your managerial skill along with all other skills you posses which are add-ons.
Once you are in a law school you are automatically vested with some responsibilities and expected to stand by that. Your presence there, envisages you to be the next Mohandas K Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kapil Sibbal, Ram Jethmalani etc. who are regarded as the best lawcrats India has ever produced. So coming down to a law school is not like going to just an ordinary college rather demands change in notion with supporting aggression.