Online Internships

Online internships are getting more frequent now, thanks to the pandemic. Here's a simple post on what we gain and what we lose from these internships.

Pros:

1. Flexible timing.

2. A more at-ease structure of the internship programme.

3. Way more work to do, and interesting topics to discover- because you save time usually swallowed up by commuting.

4. No dress code, you don't have to wear formals every day!

5. Better opportunities to talk to the directly to heads of the programme.

6. Saving a lot on stay, commuting, food, etc.

7. You get to learn a lot of digital tools, and also how to completely collaborate and finalize a project with a whole team- all sitting in the comfort of your home. 

Cons: You miss out on-

1. Experiencing a new city, new work culture.

2. Making incredible friends, and bonding over lunch break.

3. Chit-chatting with co-workers and associates above you (this can give a lot of insight into the firm, the business, the whole landscape of your profession, actually). Sometimes, a lot of the ideas can come up on a casual coffee break chit-chat.

4. Meeting the head people of the firm, and having an opportunity to discuss your own ideas with them. 

5. A lot of fun, and company lunches, and free ice-creams!

Both have their own charm. And, we'd probably never really pick to intern online unless something like a pandemic forces us to. So, it's good to experience when we have the chance to! I am on an internship online with a legal startup, and I am very excited about it! That is why I decided to pen my thoughts on the pros and cons, and I sure will let you know more on my experience when I finish my internship. Stay tuned!

Tanmay: A Poetic Feature

Studying in the University has many perks, one of them being meeting interesting people with an abundance of talent. It is also the time all of us tend to work on ourselves, and explore what we have always wanted to do. Today, I have the pleasure of featuring a very talented poet, and a dear friend since the past three years from law school- Tanmay Raj Anand. 

It all started out as an interest in literature, with his mom introducing him to fiction since a young age, and the joy of fiction undoubtedly made a lasting impact. He wrote his first poem in the April of 2016, when the woes of figuring out a career post-schooldays were finally put to rest, and he found time to write. His first ever poem was one titled Trinkets on a Shelf, and that opened an array of windows for this young teen who found that there seemed to be the right words and ways in poetry to express the 'barrage' of emotions and experiences of a rebellious teenager. Tanmay says,

"The poems that I wrote then were not good, they were terrible actually. But I knew I could improve."

Well, I say, everything starts that way! Even this blog is a testament to that- you can see my growth as a writer, blogger, reader, thinker- all from scratch! And, today what I can say about Tanmay is that I truly believe his poetry will be a pleasant and nourishing discovery for all who read. 

Tanmay writes poetry for the sheer charm he feels by writing about his own experiences in lucid words. To him, poetry is a form of expression that can both heal troubled experiences and also help you grow. Everyone has their own mode of expressing and processing their emotions and thoughts. To me, it is writing. To Iah, it is music. And, to Tanmay, it is the evergreen art of poetry. 

"There’s also immense beauty and skill involved in making the banal things of daily life sound exciting, and I appreciate writers such as Henry Miller and Haruki Murakami for adding meaning in newer manners to routine stuff. Writing poetry thus becomes a form of meditation, it gives me a high, and the process of writing poems is so lucid, intoxicating, fleeting and limited- and, I let it possess me for that short amount of time just so that I can feel the satisfaction of a poem well written."

It is the thought and perspective of this budding poet that his poems mirror his own growth, and I couldn't agree with them more. Tanmay's command over the language and the ability to string words that are poetically admirable are absolutely impressive, to the say the least. 

The young poet is an ardent admirer of Charles Bukowski, and is quick to dole out his name to others when asked to suggest a poet who can incite the love for poetry in someone who isn't at all much exposed to poetry. What he most loves about Bukowski is the poet's realistic and unapologetic style of writing. 

"I’d tell anyone to read Bukowski as he really changed the game."

He also suggests Freedom of Love by André Breton, You by Tom Clark, Blocks by Frank O’Hara, and The Liberator by Emily Holmes Coleman, and poems of Sylvia Plath.

Although Tanmay doesn't have a particular 'goal' or contribution in mind for his poetry, what he does wish is for other people to read and remember him for his poems. Words are truly immortal, and there is no better way to remember a person than for what they do passionately! And, I think Tanmay's poetry are sure to strike an impressive chord in terms of languages and exploration of themes! 

Talking of themes, my dear friend has been on a full-on experience writing surrealist poetry. His favourite poem amongst what he has written happens to be one titled Automated #1 that was written using a very popular technique of surrealist writing called “psychic automation”. It involves writing down your thoughts quickly without necessarily editing them immediately, and moving on to the next thought as fast as possible. 

"Automated #1 turned out to beg much better than i had expected from the technique. It was replete with images and had layers of deeper meaning and a logical flow to it which came about naturally rather than through editing."

Tanmay has been featured in Bitter Fruit Review’s Summer Edition 2020, and also on Fitoor Open Mic. He has also recently started his blog 'minutes of my heart', as a sincere attempt to write more regularly. It features his thoughts on random things that cross his mind including philosophical musings, music, experiences, and sometimes poetry- all written in a short, sweet, and fun-to-read way.

Apart from poetry, our friend here is an avid reader, who likes to also sketch, and is now trying to foray back into exploring music again, having acquired a pair of bongos recently! Do check him out on Instagram @tanmayay where he regularly puts up his poetry. I can assure you they are a pleasure to read!

Tanmay is very dear friend, and I'm proud and happy that I can introduce his talent to a wider audience!

A Solution for the Woes of Packing (Light)

In the last three years, I have frequently flown between college and home every semester. And, the first thing that anyone faces when they fly is baggage! There is a "student" allowance that most airlines give for extra baggage, but it still is a big deal to get all you want in place, within the allowance. 

When you come home every time, you are sent back with a host of things apart from what you brought in the first place. Moms have a separate list of 'essentials' that they will definitely pack and send along. So, how do you pack it all in the suitcase you get and how do you make sure you're within your allowed baggage weight? Sadly, there seems to be no magical shortcut to this. 

1. I had to plan and get the stuff from college to home- only what I absolutely need.

2. There is a way to pack. I think the best way is to apply the well-known rocks-pebbles-sand story in practice! 

For those of you who don't know, here's the story, just in case: You have rocks, pebbles, and sand that need to go into a jar. How do you put them in so that all of them can go in? If you put the sand in first, then it would occupy most of the space, and you will not have space for all the bigger rocks and pebbles. So, you put in the rocks first- meaning you put the bulkier, heavier clothes first (jeans, pants, skirts, shoes, etc.). Then you put the pebbles- which are smaller than rocks but bigger than sand. They tend to fit into the bigger gaps between the rocks- like your shirts, tops, and other things. Then you put in the sand, which can go and occupy every other space available- and these are all the rest small things that you need to pack. While the story is said in a metaphorical and philosophical sense, it makes our job much easier to actually use it for filling up the suitcase! That's what I do every time.

3. If you have a bulky shoe, or anything else like a jacket, carry it on you. Wear it for the journey. It gives so much space for other things to fit in without increasing your load, too. 

4. Don't fill up the suitcase to it's maximum capacity while going home because you are bound to carry more things in the same suitcase when you leave home. 

These are some of things that I always do. Do you have a hack that you follow? Let me know in the comments!

Loving Minimalism- In Design and Productivity

Minimalism. Minimalism is basically having or owning as few things as possible, or being minimalist. It can also mean having profound experiences with the least amount of things you need. In theory, minimalism is something that I really am fond of- and I believe in it completely when it comes to the design of a living space. 

Living in a hostel room, I have as few things as possible and only those I need. Many friends who have been to my room so many times over the past two years have always looked at how simple the room is, and yet it feels so comfortable and at home. White walls, a few nails to hang keys and other stuff, a shelf, a cot and a table. That's all the room needs. To me, keeping the living space clean and neat is more important that decorating it with tons of stuff.

It is possible to keep your living space clean anyway, irrespective of whether you are someone who loves hoarding the room and decorating it, or someone like me who likes to have only and only what I really need in my room. But, it is undeniable that it is easier to maintain the room clean for the latter. 

The didi  in my hostel who comes to help clean the room always has a thankful word for me that there aren't many things to really clean in my room. I have so few things in my room that I can fit every single object in my room (except the cot and the table) into my shelf and still have some space left in it! This makes organizing, cleaning, maintaining things a breeze!

I think this whole idea of me loving minimalism is why I took to Chromebooks very easily. I have been using a Chromebook for the last six years, and I don't think I'd buy any other laptop. A vast majority of us literally use just the browser on a laptop, and maybe store some files on the local storage. That is it! Why do we need a laptop with a ton of things that we would never get to know and use? I heard in an interview talking about Chromebooks, where Mr. Pichai explained how Chromebooks were launched by Google to actually give only what the users need and use. I think that's brilliant, and I love it. I have been using it smoothly for the last 6 years, which proves that anything more isn't really needed. 

A minimalist approach largely sorts out and simplifies things wherever you apply it. That is why I am a huge fan of this approach. Like we know it, I always reiterate the KISS principle in my mind- keep it simple, stupid!

What Do I Do In Life?

Five years ago, in 2015, I took out the dizziness of choosing a stream after class X as an essay: Science or Commerce? But, I ended up choosing law after class XII for which the stream I chose in class X didn't matter one bit, and neither was the physics that I studied through two years of junior college (fancy name for class XI and XII).

Now, I am near the end of third year and have two more years left to wrap up college. Yet, it is probably good to start thinking about what I want to do. No clue. The one thing that I have retained from schooldays till now is to change and fancy a different idea every day. I study law, and I really like it. It is one of the most interesting fields, and I am happy to be studying this subject that shall be relevant and necessary as long as humans continue to exist. 

Unlike back at the time of Class X, where everybody had an opinion to share, people don't really have much to say now. Looks like they bully only teenage kids, I escaped that zone. So, here are a couple of options for me-

One, I can choose litigation after graduation- that would basically be underpaid slogging for a couple of years at the most happening area and scenes in law. 

Two, I can join a law firm. Pay scale depends on which firm. If the pay scale is good, I don't know if I am good enough for them to take me in (haha, we need scores buddy, and you got to be there right on top, since when have 'good' scores ever been good enough?) If it's a firm that is going to definitely be glad to have me in, I'm not really sure about the money part. 

Three, I can postpone this whole decision and just study further. LLM is a ready option, and then I can go on studying till I have finally found out what I can do. But, I still haven't given up those hopes on Criminology and Forensic Sciences as a niche within the domain of law (hehe, Perry Mason influence is becoming actionable this time). Again, there are numerous sub questions as to where and how and when, and we won't go into those. Good idea? Bad idea? 

Four, I can do something completely unrelated to law. Two sub-questions arise(both from my parents and myself): One, why did I study five years of law then?! Two, what other thing will I do?

Five, I can work on a startup related to the legal field, or otherwise, if I do have ideas. This one's not easy, and not for all of us, I guess. I'm not sure if this is for me. Yet, it is appealing in terms of freedom, creativity and scope of the work I'd be doing in this. Also, the contribution might be very significant. 

Six, I can join a social work group related to law. A noble intention but not so much money in it for a young graduate. So, maybe this may not be the immediate choice after graduation. 

Seven, I can pursue a hobby to be my profession. But, I don't want to, at least not after graduation. This is not going to be my plan-A. I don't want to write for a living. I want to write everyday, more and more, as something I love doing. Also, I like intense work in a professional way, I think. So, this option has been ruled out by me, personally. 

I don't really think I am the type who can exit college with a mastermind plan to open up a physical business, or run a cafe, or anything like that- so such options aren't even options for me by choice. I am attached to academics, and it is something that I get and something that I can be good at, and also something that I really enjoy. 

My parents are clear that whatever I do, I should be happy and content (of course, earn some money if possible). And they stand by the advise they gave me through my life and also 5 years ago- "But whatever you choose, do it sincerely and be in the top." 

All the options listed are open, and I retain the phrase I used for myself back in class X: someone like me, who is not exactly very interested in one particular thing but likes everything without even disliking any- what should we choose?

Two years left, and I am mulling on ideas. Suddenly, two years doesn't seem a very long time. Let's see, it's not far off!

Traversing (Personally Unknown) Territories

Moot got over? Coming for that seven-cheesy pizza (large, with that 1+1 offer).

Mid-semester happening? Need to cheer up, shall we have fries and cold coffee? And hey, repeat that order.

Mid-semester got over? Let's get that scrumptious veg lasange, mon ami. Need a break.

Mid-semester results came in today? Good? Damn, let's celebrate. Not that good? Come on, time to cheer up! All with some mouth watering mysore masal dosas.

Weekend? Let's just get out of the campus. 

Weekday? Long day, can we at least have something nice to eat?

Birthday? Hey, wait up, you got to take us to the most expensive place that we'll choose and your dad, of course, will pay the bill. 

In college, every little thing is an excuse to go out and eat (my semester budgets stand testament to that). College gave me an opportunity to explore food like I have never done until my schooldays, and fair enough because that is primarily what college days are for- eating. Dessert to me until schooldays was vanilla ice cream, and falooda. But after I got to college, things were in for a fancier outlook. They wanted cheesecakes, caramel puddings, and freak-shakes. I learnt what a waffle, a sizzler, and a momo is after I got to college, and I was genuinely surprised that people were surprised about me not knowing. Why would I, haha? We used to eat gulab jamun with ice-cream after a meal, usually.

Finding friends who also didn't know much was the greatest fun. It was great going to restaurants where I didn't understand what the dishes in the menu card were. Google really is your best friend. Okay google, what the hell is a gnocchi?

Five years of college- that seemed way too long when I was wrapping up class 12. That's like the time I took to go from class V to X. Crazy. But time ran. I am in my third year of law school, and I can't believe three years of college is already over. COVID-19 has further pushed us to cut back on the time left. Also missing aloo cheese parathas with an extremely generous amount of butter smeared on it from my college night mess . Every day is an excuse for it, we didn't even need to look for an occasion! 

Let's stay in, stay safe, and pray we get over with this terrible spell. I hope I get to go back to college soon, and I also hope I get to have as much fun in the rest of the two years! 

How Should A CV Be?

Should a CV be interesting? Should it stand out? Should it show them why you you are good enough for the job you apply? 

Applying frantically to all the big shot law firms with a CV that thousands of other students will also have, I always wondered how they select on the basis of a CV. Let's be honest, here. The CV has to be in a given format that is prescribed, and most of the details that are asked is about your academic performances, and academic achievements. 

Another honest point that we must encounter is that there are a lot of brilliant students out there, and a lot of them have good CVs in a way that there is nothing to say one is better than the other. So, how then do they decide to give internship to one over the other?

I have two internship experiences, and on the last day, I asked this very question to the partners in both the firms. 

Firm 1 Partner: If you are a topper, I care, and if you are failure, I'm interested. If you are in the middle, it doesn't matter. I took you in because you had good scores. 

Firm 2 Partner: I don't really check the CV much. CV is a fraud, students obviously make it in a way and with the view to impress. I rely on the cover letter they write. If they have taken the efforts to write a genuine cover letter, I take them in. 

Well, within this meager sample space that I took opinions from, I have a conclusion that getting the internship-

a) it's mostly just luck, hahahahahaha(contd...)-  but not all of it!

b) there is nothing to feel bad about if you don't land an internship

c) also, there is nothing to feel too great about if you do get one

d) networking and keeping in touch with people you get to know from your internships is important- if you think you'll get on merit every time, you may be just wrong

e) you can't give up on the CV building

Be open to learning. Keep working, not just to get an internship. And, at least be brave enough to face truth, and write true achievements on the CV. You can state some achievement in a more polished way than it actually is, that's a talent (with which I feel I have come close to mastery). However, please don't write things you never did just so you can amp up your bio. 

COVID-19 has put an end to all internship talks for now (I have absolutely no complaints, and in fact, yay). So, focus on actual skill building, and not plain script building! This is a great time to do more productive things (of course, only if you want to) and then you can actually include them on the CV! Whether or not the list of things you did gets you a job, I am sure you will be that much prouder about yourself! 

Iah: A Musical Feature

This evening saw the release of What If There Were 360 Days In A Year, the wondrous dedicated creativity of a year- culminating in a 14-track mixtape of Iah's music. I loved Môr and Monsoon Palace from the mixtape. But, who is Iah?

Pushing the boundaries of creativity, breaking the grounds on perspectives, Iah makes the music that attempts to communicate at a dimension that can be expressed and understood only through a boundless medium of art like music. 

Swapnil Shreshtha, as Iah, explores a side that is a figment of imagination in the real world, but a versatile reality in the dimension of the world of electronic music, as reversed from “hai” meaning “what is” in Hindi. 

What If There Were 360 Days In A Year

Coming from a small town in India, what started as an unconscious and reflexive attraction to rock and metal at the age of twelve, only led to a fifteen year old Swapnil ending up being a part of a three-member band, sparking the ignition to become the seamless artist that he is today. At sixteen years of age, with no formal training in music and with no actual instruments to experiment the self-taught interest, Swapnil was forced to a point where he might have had to wrap up the music in him. And, discovering electronic music at that point was the first major climacteric of his life. 

And, then on came an exponential curve in the exploration of electronic music which led to the birth of Iah. To Iah, music is not just an escape to the surreal, but a way to express what is impossible to be expressed through words. To Iah, music is the only dimension that supports the gravity of his perspective and thoughts. And to Iah, the music he makes is the creative bonanza that he cannot hold back. 

Iah makes electronic music that is atmospheric and glitchy, and is influenced by various genres like hip-hop, trap, drum and bass, and many others, in line with Iah’s belief, truly and wholly, that the genre cannot define a music where the music must define the genre. Therefore, traversing on a landscape of genre that works on his own style, Iah makes music on a mix of personal style and atmospheric electronic music. 

Iah previously made music and remixed songs under the project pen name of Indus, and has worked on several other music collaborations, and produced with upcoming artists, especially rappers. With a recent release of a well-received EP ‘Arcana’ in October 2019 consisting of three songs- Affection, Cocoon, and Found- the artist has pieced together an intimate and important journey of personal metamorphosis. Recently, two beautiful singles Bulletproof and Dusty Rose were released by Iah only to meet a vibrant, warm reception, and many features! 

                             

 

Music to Iah is something divine and spiritual. Coming from a small town himself, the aim of this phenomenal, upcoming artist is one that is as expressive about himself as his music. The young artist hopes that one day he can build a strong community for artists like producers, singers, rappers, songwriters, filmmakers, designers, painters, illustrators and many others of all kinds, who can work with each other with collaboration and funding, so that the art can be created in an environment of support and strength. 

Iah’s music opens a wormhole to an alternate realm of perspective through detailed, expressive and intimate music baring every beat originating from his mind of music.

Swapnil is a dear friend from the University, and I am glad that his music meets the world. There is a definite joy when the artist connects to an audience, and that is the greatest achievement of today's world of technology!

You can access Swapnil as Iah here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iahxhai/

Twitter: @IahxhaI

Youtube: http://hyperurl.co/iahyoutube
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/44DPCDsc1uPMpUZuLdsgE4

5 Things That Make You More Efficient While Doing An Academic Project

Fresh out of an academic University submission for the subject of Public International Law today, I realized that there were a few things that actually make your life simpler while doing a project. There are many things that we juggle with when we set out to do a project- there are questions for which you have already done the research and you have enough data to answer, there are those questions that you have no idea about as yet, and there are those other questions which you are in the process of gathering information. 

When you have a research structure with more than 6-7 questions, each having their own set of sub-queries that prompt you research on that line, it can get overwhelming somewhere in the middle if you don't do it in an organized manner. It's not that you won't be able to finish it, but certain practices definitely help you put your project together much faster. 

1. Bookmarks

Simple. Yet it solves a ton of problems. Just bookmark all the sites you visit in one folder as you read it. This makes sure that it is always there, and you never face that situation where you came across brilliant data but now lost it among tons of other open tabs. Talking of tabs, that's what the next point is about. 

2. New Window

Please use the option of "open a tab in new window". I know this is more of a habit, and many people keep fifty open tabs in the same window. I, for one, can never, ever, do that. It just takes me for a spin. I like to have a pictorial location in my mind about where a content I'm reading is in the browser. Using more windows helps you sort out. Use one window for a research question, maybe. Or, use one window for ongoing research, and another window to have those research data that you have finalized on, maybe?

3. Rough-Paper Document

The best way to collate all that you have got on a subject is to open up a draft document for you project. When you find something that is useful, copy-paste with the link below. This way you have the relevant data, and also the sites you took them from. 

4. Rough Citations

As you are typing out your project- make draft or rough citations. Put the citation number then and there, and insert the link you need to cite from in the footnote. This makes your job a thousand times easier while citing. I feel figuring out where to cite and matching it with what to cite all at the same time in the end is such a big mess. 

5. Basic Formatting

Always, always write with basic formatting. Do not skip that apostrophe, comma, capitalization thinking you'll do it later. Check the requirements for the font style, size, line spacing, alignment, and start writing after setting them all right. Going around adding that apostrophe in don't in the end, or fixing that capital letter in names/beginning of sentences is very annoying to do. And, don't use short forms. Just write properly. By trying to save time, you'll end up wasting more in the end.

6. Citations

Citations really are the bane of academic writing. For all those of you who read it till the end: here's a bonus! If you already aren't aware: use Citethisforme that might just make doing citations a tad bit easier. 

All the very best, try to be more efficient next time. But don't be like me: just because I am efficient enough to do a project in an hour when it is supposed to take 3 hours, I use it like a short-cut to guilt-free postponing. Don't do that. Try these, they really help make your project-time that much lesser.

Catching A Vibe

Music is something that I have been introduced to very young. My mom loves listening to Carnatic music, a classical South-Indian genre, and she watches a lot of concerts, they are called 'katcheri'. I learnt South Indian Carnatic music for a long time during my schooldays from a professional classical Carnatic music guru. Being in Chennai, music is found everywhere in the December 'margazhi utsavam season'. Almost in every household, the kids learnt, when I was in school, classical music in some form- either vocal or instrumental. Our own school had two dedicated periods for music- one traditional and the other western, where we learnt a mix of swaras and jingles- all in the same spirit!

However, apart from the jingles that I learnt in school, and the trendy scores, I never had the opportunity, nor bothered to explore other genres of music. Words like pop, rock, jazz, rap were just words to me, really, and I didn't have a great sense about them. But, college opened up a lot of new music to me. Initially (and still actually, haha), I shied away from conversations about music because of the worry that I didn't really know much about it. And then slowly, I started looking at it the other way: I don't know anything is the best place to start a conversation from! And wham-bham: my friends were always asking me to check out this and that, and they were constantly sending me song suggestions. I kind of got into a groove about it. 

Over the semesters (since I've come to identify time in the scale of semesters like any college student), I have explored quite a bit, and I have to admit I found out ones that clearly weren't favourites, and then ones that I really loved.

There are so, so many songs that I listened to and liked over the semesters, but here are five songs which are special to me because a) I loved them, and b) they actually opened me up to other songs and music. Note, there is no order of preference. 

1. Someone New - Hozier : Have to give Hozier the first place. A dear friend made me listen to Someone New as we were walking through our University campus, and that's the story of how I met Hozier without even knowing what I was listening to. It kept playing in my head so often, I was compelled to go back and ask from her what song it was. And from there, I started listening to most of his songs.

2. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham! : Can't say no to 80s pop.

3. Bennie and the Jets - Elton John : Looks like can't say no to 70s either.

4. B-A-B-Y - Carla Thomas : When I saw Baby Driver, apart from all the car stunts that left me glued to the screen, this was the one song I wanted to go back and check out again. And then, before I knew it I was listening to it on repeat.

5. Taro - Alt-J : This was one song that I stumbled upon on someone's suggestion (I think), and I actually never forget who told me about a song. But, this one here is an exception. I absolutely love it, but can't remember who told me about it. Maybe, no one did and I just stumbled upon it myself. 

6. Dancing Queen - ABBA : Like I already told you, we don't listen to English songs much at home. But, my dad pulled out a list of ABBA songs from one of his friends once, and Dancing Queen just came right to my heart. Loved it then, and love it now. 

7. 24K Magic - Bruno Mars : This was the first Bruno Mars song I ever heard. And, we all got to accept, it does make us dance!

8. Come Together - The Beatles :  This was something I listened to for the first time while cleaning up my room, when my Spotify artist radio just played it. I didn't even know it was by the Beatles! But, the song caught on to me and I went back and checked it out, and since then it has always been in the playlist!

Oops, I said 5 songs but looks like I have a lot of special ones! This is obviously a list I can keep adding to. But, just like I wrap up my research papers in college: the list is beyond the scope of this blog post!

Which songs are special to you? Would you like to add a suggestion, or two? Let me know in the comments!

One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School

Title: One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School

Author: Scott Turow

Do you, or did you, ever feel, "I am a law student in my first year at the law, and there are many moments when I am simply a mess"? Pick up this amazing book of experience by a "1L" in the first year of HLS (Harvard Law School), and every line would be something that you would relate to at a very personal level. When I opened the book, and I saw the first line, my brain went: woah, this has happened to me! And, I quoted the book on twitter and put up how I relate to it. And, then I read the next line, and the next, and the next, till the very last line of the book, and there wasn't a dull moment as I went on a surprisingly funny and relatable ride of reliving through the anguish, nervousness, excitement and the free-falling fear of a first year at law school.

Written beautifully, and honestly, Scott Turow captures the small things that dominate through your law school experience as he joins as a married 26 year old in HLS: the nervousness of being called by the professor to answer a question, the gross inadequacy of confidence to answer even when you have a well-rounded knowledge and reading about the subject, the struggle of making notes, and the conflict between referring voluminous works of authorities and the summarized guide/help-book versions that seem doable one day before the examinations, the change every student undergoes as a person, and the shift of perspectives as we learn the law.

Some of our professors themselves have written books on the subject they teach, and I have personally had such experiences, and we tend to read from their own books for their subject because as the book aptly captures it:

“Two buddies of mine say that the dude’s whole course is in there.”

Till our schooldays, we were the topper of the class: our ego boosted. And, when we enter law school, we are humbled to realize that almost every single other person is probably better than us, has a different perspective, and though it is hard to struggle with the hit on our ego, it's best to learn and move ahead! An excerpt from the book beautifully captures the feeling.

"All your life you’ve been good in school. All your life it’s been something you could count on. You know that it’s a privilege to be here. You’ve studied hours on a case that is a half page long. You couldn’t understand most of what you read at first, but you have turned the passage inside out, drawn diagrams, written briefs. You could not be more prepared. And when you get to class that demigod who knows all the answers finds another student to say things you never could have. Clearer statements, more precise. And worse—far worse—notions, concepts, whole constellations of ideas that never turned inside your head."

Unlike other courses of study, law is difficult not only because of its volume and concepts, but because of its indefinite derived terms and maxims from French and Latin, and also the never ending set of jargons. On top of this, the judgments are the least easy to read. A lot of days, during my internships, I have personally struggled with the long-winding, meandering sentences that conjunct multiple concepts in a single line, even though I consider my English and comprehension skills pretty decent.

"In reading cases, I soon discovered that most judges and lawyers did not like to sound like ordinary people. Few said “I.” Most did not write in simple declarative sentences. They wanted their opinions to seem the work of the law, rather than of any individual. To make their writing less personal and more impressive, they resorted to all kinds of devices, “whences” and “heretofores,” roundabout phrasings, sentences of interminable length."

Examinations are a big deal in law school. Concepts thorough, you feel so? Try giving the paper. Your preparations are, more often than not, reduced to nothing. The exams not only test what you have learnt, but some papers of some professors are impossible to answer unless you have internalized the concept to an extent you are prepared to answer any such far fetched application in less than half an hour. Scott Turow captures its essence aptly as he describes how cheated he felt after his exams, where his elaborate daily preparation for classes had not been worthwhile, and the fine analysis of every case were not merely irrelevant to the exams, but had also proved to be beyond the grasp of his memory.

I loved the book to its every word. It's a must read for every law student. I enjoyed the book so much, and there was so much truth in it. I just shared a few excerpts here, and I had my friends already texting me after looking at the tweet quotes that they wanted to read it!

It is a wonderful, honest book, and Turow has absolutely and aptly captured the experiences of every law student. Thank you Turow for this amazing book!

Here's one more excerpt from the book that I really, really loved (and, it is so true, hahaha):

"Yes, there are achievements in the past. They’re nice to bandage up your wounded self-esteem.But “I graduated college magna cum laude” is not the proper answer when the professor has just posed a question and awaits your response with the 140 other persons in the class."-One L

— Sandhya Varadharajan (@sandhya_varadh) March 18, 2020

Normative, Positive, Others: In The Analysis Of Law

Dear Friends (studying law),

The normative or what ought to be, and the positive or what is, are two schools of analysis and research that are parallel, and yet so often crisscross each other. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. puts it: "the life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience".

Evaluating and finding a legal scholarship to be interesting can be based on many criteria of which normative clarity is one. The other criteria are persuasiveness of arguments in a argumentative scholarship, significance determined by the work’s relationship with the recent developments in the field of law, and the applicability of the work to present day situation as knowledge without applicability is meaningless.

Normative scholarships are just one type of model. The other interesting types are doctrinal, analytical and critical, realistic and interpretative models which may or may not be merged with normative premises.

One of the other factors that makes a legal scholarship very interesting is well formulated arguments. These not only can provide convincing ways to apply the initial premise, but also can lend plausibility to the normative premise.

No one factor is solely responsible for the determination of the importance, or the interesting nature of a work of scholarship. For example, Guido Calabresi’s ‘A Common Law For The Age Of Statutes’ is a very important landmark work in the field of legal scholarships but it lacks in the tone of persuasiveness.

Since, law was, is and will always be a “practice” rather than just a theoretical field, it makes a work highly interesting when it produced not only a normative hypothesis but also a descriptive or expressive argument facilitating it to have a practical base.

It is true that all interesting legal scholarship engages normative questions, but that definitely does not underplay the importance of other criteria that make a scholarship interesting, and serves the key purpose of value addition to both the subject and its practice. 

Written at a time of impending due of research paper submissions for this semester, 

Yours truly,

A fellow law student with an interest in legal research.

Internships

We are back at that time of the semester when everyone is frantically applying to a hundred places for a place in the summer internship slots. And, on a such a momentous frame of time, I present to you an honest report that I wrote after my first day of my first internship ever. 

*

Day One of my month-long internship with the Tamil Nadu Human Rights Commission started off yesterday. I was asked to report to their office at 10.30 AM. Being a punctual girl, I was there right on time to be greeted by a lady staff. She inquired about me and then when she learnt that I was a student, she asked me to wait until “sir” came.

Slowly people trickled into the office room and smiled at me, and I smiled back at them too, expecting one of them to be the “sir”. No such luck. All of them smiled pleasantly and told me that “sir” would instruct me on everything that I had to do. It was eleven and most of the staff had come by then.

Finally, at eleven-thirty, an elderly man walked in and everyone greeted him. The lady staff who first spoke to me signalled that he was the one I was supposed to report to. I, an eager first-time intern, immediately stood up and gave him a bright smile, and informed him I had come for the internship. He smiled and just waved me to sit back in my chair again. And then, for another hour he went on with his job as I sat there just observing the people work.

The office room is a small space with six work desks and a few extra chairs. There are piles and bundles of case files piled up everywhere. There is a computer in one of the work desks that stores details of the cases in an excel sheet. There are also two telephones in the room for calls from the public.

At twelve thirty, “Sir” finally asked me to pull up the chair near his desk, and I got to know his name. He started briefing me about the Human Rights Commission. I am just summarising what I learnt from him yesterday.

The SHRC was divided into three wings- the administrative wing, the legal wing and the investigation wing. These three wings operated in sync. The Commission is headed by the Chairperson who is a retired High Court Judge. Also, it has two members- one of whom is a High Court Judge and the other is an IAS officer.

The State Human Rights Commission is for lodging any sort of complaint on the working of any government official. The complaint should be such that it is on something that is within the scope of their duties as an employee of the government. These cases that are filed on the officials are then sent to the Investigation wing of the HRC from the legal wing. After analysis, a report is sent back to the legal wing. Then a date is set for the trial and the petitioner and the defendant are allowed to present their case, they are questioned, witnesses are examined and cross examined, and finally orders are passed. The judges do not have the power to give out a punishment for the official found guilty as they are protected by the state powers. So, instead the order authorizes the HRC to send out a recommendation to the official which is filed on his name. Such recommendations for being found guilty of an offense can cut out incentives such as promotions and retirement benefits for the government official.

Sir gave me a bare act of the 2006 amended version of The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 with State Human Rights Commission, Tamil Nadu (Procedure) Regulations, 1997. I was pretty proud to read the bare act as I could now, after one whole semester at law school with Legal Methods as a subject, could identify parts of a statute such as the short title, long title, definition clauses, provisos and non-obstante clauses. It felt like something that I learnt was being put to use.

Sir then detailed me on how I should make an entry of the cases and their statuses (Pending/Closed) into the case book classified year-wise and case number-wise. I did this job for sometime. And then, I was asked to attend the phone calls and take down the name, district, case no. and the petition date from the caller. This was a lot of fun and I liked doing it. For every case, the entry must also be made in the excel sheet. I did this job also for sometime. The jobs that they made me do were kind of repetitive but that is all the job there is.

They also told me that I could go through some of the case files when I was making the entry if I was interested. I did try to do that but since all of the cases that I dealt with yesterday were in Tamil, and in quite unintelligible handwritings, I gave up after sometime.

There are also three trial courts in the campus and I would be able to see some of the proceedings in the future.

Overall, Day One went good.

*

Reading this now, I realised that none of my other internships were this chilled out. They were all hectic, and mostly with extended working hours, sometimes even on a Sunday.

But hey, they're all good, good memories, and I've met some of the most brilliant people thanks to the stints of internship.  And, looking forward to more!

What To Eat: Dealing With Midnight Hunger Pangs

If you're a student in a University, then staying up till 12 or 1 AM is normal. And, if you do stay up till that late at night, feeling that hunger pang tug at you before you go to bed is also normal. What we usually do is go out and eat a second dinner literally in the middle of the night (here, in my college we have a night mess that serves damn nice hot, buttery parathas), or you'd probably just order your food on Swiggy or the likes. 

Uh, but, University students stay up late every single day almost. Yeah, now, so the paratha slowly becomes a luxury because it'll start to make a dent in your pocketses(oh, yeah, preciousss!). But, let's assume you are rich and have no dearth of money. Then eating out every night when you are hungry is going to make you get a cute little tummy that will probably grow out to look not-so-cute-anymore. 

That calls for the need of healthy, filling, tasty snacks- tough combo, really, next to impossible! But, here are three items you can try. I have always found these fulfilling and tasty.

      1. Bananas! 

Tasty? Absolutely. Healthy? Without a doubt. Affordable? They're the best.

Here's some mildly-researched health facts:

Other than being rich in vitamin B6, bananas are a good source of vitamin C, dietary fibre and manganese. A medium-sized banana will provide around 320-400 mg of potassium, which meets about 10% of your daily potassium needs.

Needless to say anything more, right?

2. Peanut Chikkies 

If you aren't allergic to peanuts, then go for this! What can beat a bar of peanut chikkies held together by sweet jaggery that melts in your mouth! Not only does it satisfy your sweet tooth, it is also very healthy. 

Now to health facts:

Peanuts are an especially good source of healthful fats, protein, and fibre. They also contain plenty of potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, and vitamins. Despite being high in calories, peanuts are nutrient-rich and low in carbohydrates. Jaggery is no less: loaded with antioxidants and minerals, they are rich in iron and act as a detox, helping cleanse the liver by flushing out nasty toxins from the body. 

   

3. Dates 

Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. 

Haha, just eat it. It's one of the tastiest dry druits, and are extremely nutritious. They are high in fibre content and antioxidants, and promote good health. And, they are easy to eat. Nowadays, they come in many varieties and are available seedless. 

My friends eat a lot of other midnight snacks: greek yoghurt, health/yoga chocolate bars, blah blah blah. No doubt they are tasty and relatively healthy, but they are also expensive. These three snacks to munch on at midnight are not only healthy, but extremely affordable to most of us. And, I can assure that you will not get bored of eating them (unlike how you will if you munch on yoga bars, bleh).

So, next time you want to snack on something, try one of these! Do you have a favourite, healthy snack? Add to the list in the comments!

Beat The Heat: Elaneer/Narial Pani/Coconut Water

Image from dreamstime.com

February is near its end, and so are the winters. In fact, I feel the winter has long gone. So, what does that signify? Lots, indeed! Why, summer is the ultimate season of mangoes, watermelons, ice creams, milkshakes, lemonades, sodas, juices, sarbaths, jigirthandas and all the other delicious, lip-smacking drinks and eateries that isn't allowed on a cold, wintry day. And along with so much freedom comes the terrible, unforgiving wrath of the sun down on the city! 

Ice creams and juices don’t help beyond a certain point. They give instant relief from the heat, but nothing more. For a long-lasting, healthy, natural, replenishing freshness, nothing beats tender coconuts! Yes, tender coconuts- the hard nut that comes in shades of yellow and green storing the soothingly cool, and sweet coconut water despite the ever-growing temperatures- are the panacea for the hot weather! Technically, for those who are interested, coconut water is the liquid endosperm, of the tender coconut. 

Take time out to go to the stocks of tender coconuts that would be available around every corner, and enjoy sipping the cool coconut water straight from inside the tough nut through a straw inserted in a single hole, deftly made by the sellers. For those who aren't satisfied with just "cool" coconut water, they can bring the whole tender coconut without making the hole, and store it in their refrigerator to have a cold drink. Even the laziest goose can have a sip at the doorstep, as some of the sellers bring the tender coconuts in pushcarts! A sip of the sweet water, and the weary faces turn cheerful again. Well! When you drink it you almost actually feel a cool breeze blowing, and slowly enveloping your body. 

Tender coconuts not only make you feel cool but are also very nutritious. In fact, they are the most nourishing beverage that nature has given to the people! They contain many essential proteins, minerals and vitamins that keep our body healthy, especially during summer. Tender coconuts help stop dehydration of the body. They clear the body of toxic wastes. They also bring down the rashes and heat boils that attack us so often during the summer months. So, naturally, tender coconuts are the best solution to beat the heat during the summer for young and old. 

One of the things that make me smoothly sail through the Gujarat heat and it's unforgiving Loo winds that blow through the day is the Narial Pani sold by the fruits bhaiyya who comes to our college through the week.

So, you want to stay cool this summer, with maximum benefits? Tender coconuts to the rescue!

Jogging Everyday: How Does It Feel?

My Ticwatch E is pretty cool!

I wake up in the morning, feeling fresh. And as I get ready, I put on those running shoes enthusiastically, and go for jog breathing in the clean, morning air, my brisk jog countering the general cold. After a good thirty minute jog, I hit the shower, and have a healthy breakfast- fruits, oatmeal cereals, milk. The day ahead is happy and energetic.

Okay, now, that's a great shot, hopefully in the future life of Sandhya, but let's cut the daydream, haha.

I bet all of us have those fancy pair of running shoes that we got with the optimism of living a lifestyle far removed from what we do live in. I will conveniently avoid the next statement about how often most of us use (or, don't use?) those pair of shoes though. I have a habit of waking up at around seven in the morning, so it's a great time to actually exercise. And, I do- yoga, floor exercises, indoor cardio. But, I still cannot make myself wear those shoes and get out of my room into that cold, windy, dreary morning. The days I successfully make myself walk out of the door into the open, and do go for a jog, you'd probably see me the next day, impishly limping down the hostel staircase with a slightly embarrassed grin. Yeah, that's the stamina.

A wise friend, clearly wiser than me because she executes what I am just writing as a post, told us during a general chit-chat yesterday, on how to make yourself get out there in the morning. 

1. Don't think about waking up. Just get up when the alarm blares. DON'T THINK. The moment you start thinking, you're never going to go out there regularly.

2. You can't get up, and then try to decide what you're going to do. That's not going to work either. Before you would have made up your mind, you'd find yourself crawling back into bed between the warmth of the sheets.

3. Whether you do go out for that jog comes down to if you really want to do it.

Ouch. The third one hurt, but when does truth not hurt! I feel at the end, that's the takeaway. If you really wanted it that much- all that brisk jog, great stamina, great fitness, energetic day- you'd do it. So, the key is to probably decide that you want it.

To increase stamina, and promote good fat burn, it's important to exercise sensibly. A random burst of cardio or high-intensity workout now and then is not actually going to help. Let's say out of 100, you start with an energy level of 90/100 in the first 10 minutes, and then it drops to 50/100 in the next 15 minutes, and then it's a sad 15-20/100 throughout the rest of the workout. You'll just be tired, and exhausted, and wouldn't have really done much to fat-burning. Instead, even if you are bubbling with energy, start out at a level that you can try and maintain through till the end, with little portions of cardio spaced in between. This is the kind of workout that promotes the right aspects for which you are working on.

Honestly, I am not that bad. I do have a general sense of activity that I do through the day. I seem to have a clear aversion to hitting the gym, unless I see no other way. But, I am starting to get a feeling that I can live my daydream with a little more effort. So, why not!

Are you living your daydream? If not, now may be a right time to start.

Mooting In Law School - A Weirdly Satisfying Experience

Mooting. 

Oxford University Press defines it as thus:

"Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem against an opposing counsel and before a judge. It is perhaps the closest experience that a student can have whilst at university to appearing in court."

There's always a cycle of emotions that I go through in law school every semester with respect to mooting. It comes in specific stages.

Stage 1: I am sure I don't want to moot. Nope, not mooting this semester.

Stage 2: I read the problem, it's really interesting, but I think I shouldn't moot. Let me concentrate on other things this semester, haha!

Stage 3: Or, should I? Too tempting, but nope, let me just get other things done.

Stage 4: Okay, I think I'll go just as a Researcher. 

Stage 5: Did you ask me if I wanted to do it with you? Cool, let's do it!

And, there we are with a moot problem and two weeks to get our arguments in place. Even if it is an intra-college round, moots have the ability to exert a lot of pressure. It is probably that same pressure that lets us perform with abilities that we didn't really know we had. Nobody I know ever, ever used the two weeks they get for research. Honestly, all my research and drafting of my memorial happens the last 2 days. Even if I start research one week before, I feel that all the effective research cleverly evades me until it's the D-day. 

Then, why moot? The day you pick your arguments that you have drafted, and stand before the judge in your moot courtroom, as they target every small thing you say and try to bring your case down to ashes, and the way you try to defend it- it's just a great feeling. It's a pleasure to defend what you have argued, and there is a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction that sweeps over you after you are done pleading your arguments in the oral round. 

Whether you've been hammered with questions that you weren't able to answer, or whether you defended all your arguments successfully, it leaves you owning what you did and feeling nice about it. 

Most of us go through a point in the last week where we regret picking up the moot (let's be honest). But, coming out of it successfully gives a satisfaction for me that nothing else really manages to. Mooting, that way, is a weirdly satisfying experience for me. That's why perhaps I manage to perform when under pressure. That's why perhaps that pressure itself is pleasurable as it pushes me to do much, much better.

And, after all that mooting in first rounds, we go back to stage 1: we are sure we don't want to do the second round, haha, who wants to take so much pressure! 

But, when the interesting problem comes out again, we are left thinking: Or, should I?