Great Modern Lives: Charles Dickens

On any day, for any given reader, one of the most commonly familiar names that pop up at the mention of the word 'classics' is Charles Dickens. Dickens splurged the world with wonderfully touching classic tales that are to last for generations together and stay truly time immemorial. 

Born in Portsmouth in 1812, he went to a school in Chatham till when he was twelve. And, on the fateful day of his twelfth birthday, the force of inevitable circumstances pushed this young and brilliant twelve year old to quit school and work in the blacking factories of Warren. Turmoil surrounding him, with an overworked aching childhood, a father who was arrested and sent to the debtor's prisons in Marshalsea for a debt of £40, and a prolonging and never-ending struggle against abject poverty, greatly influenced Dickens' early writing as a child. 

After a brief stint with the job of a reporter, Dickens made the decision to turn full-time on what he knew and loved the most- writing. On his 24th birthday, he published Sketches by Boz, through which he threw a great deal of light illustrating the everyday life of the common man, his magnificent and captivating writing reaching to a wide audience who saw themselves in his words. It struck a chord in all those who read it, and it gained popularity with common sentiment.

Dickens completed writing The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge before going on his first ever trip to America. After his return, there came another spell of marvellous novels that were a pleasure to read, which include Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey Son, David Copperfield, Christmas stories, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Little Dorrit. The gems of his career, the ones that he is undoubtedly popular for, came at a later stage when he gave to the world A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and the incomplete sotry of Edwin Drood.

In 1870, after two years of ill health, Dickens, who by that time had established himself as one of most proficient, classic authors, died at his home in Kent. Earlier the day of his passing, he had worked on his mystery story Edwin Drood. 

Dickens was a strong voice against the social evils of his time. His books recorded for eternity on the sufferings of the common people, and raised the hope for a better future. His pragmatic thoughts in helping the poor and educating children came much from his own experience. Written from a personal understanding of the societal issues, not just for the art of story telling but with a passion to turn the attention on to the looming loopholes that can be fixed, Dickens served as an emboldened voice to those who did not have their own. There were many political and social reforms after his death. Schools became better than those he depicted in Nicholas Nickleby, and hospital nurses improved than what the world saw through Mrs. Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit. 

My first introduction to Dickens was Oliver Twist, and that may just be the day I developed a permanent soft-spot, and eventually a hopeless drool, for classics! Dickens really deserves to be put in the category of one of the greatest modern lives, with his endearing and invaluable contribution to both literature and society!

If you have never read Dickens, maybe you could start with A Tale Of Two Cities!

Gripped In Doubt

As I switched on the television, the announcer said, “This dangerous man escaped from the jail and is believed to have-”

I couldn’t hear anymore. My ears seemed to have turned deaf. I blankly stared at the photograph of the man who had escaped from jail. He was a man around forty, with an almost bald head, and slightly overweight build. He wore perfectly round glasses, projecting his perfectly round eyes, on his perfectly round face. And, who was this? None but I. It seemed impossible.

I pinched to check if it was a nightmare. No such luck. I was fully awake. I was already feeling a tinge of an inexplicable mix of fear and guilt, for reasons I couldn’t understand why. I partially froze in panic, but my mind was racing. Thoughts of approaching the police were instantly countered by a steady, growing fear that they would turn a deaf ear to me, and simply throw me behind bars. That was not how things happen, I knew, but seeing my photo on a wanted list was also something I could have sworn wouldn’t happen, a couple of minutes ago.

Or, is that how things happen? Warrants are needed for an arrest, but are those rules followed? I would have the right to call a lawyer, but I don't even know one. What about bail? I knew nothing of those laws, and nor did I have the money. Could they beat me up? Could I seek justice in our courts of law if they did? And, what if the courts take several years to deal with my case? Would I be in jail if I couldn't pay up for the bail?

What did I do? I am innocent, but will they believe me? What if someone has framed me? Can I talk to the news channel? Should I tell my wife? Should I close my windows? What if someone from this flat has already called the cops by now? I hear a siren wailing, my heart pounds faster, but the noise fades away into the distance as the vehicle passes. I squint through the window- it was an ambulance.

What will the society think? What will I tell my wife, children? Will they believe that I did something wrong, too? Will it come in the papers? Would my son be ridiculed in school? Will my wife be taunted by family? What if they take me away and not release me? Who will earn for the family? How can I prove I am innocent?

Looming paranoia cut my voice to a dead silence. Sweat rolled down my forehead. Wiping it off, I went and switched on the fan, and took a look at the news again. 

Minutes later, I mustered enough courage to contact the news channel office, and tell them that I was no dangerous man. When I did so, there was nothing but a surprise and what felt like a voice I would associate with wide eyes. It turned out that their enlarged pupils were not due to the fear of a call from the ‘dangerous man’, but because they had no clue what I was saying. Each time I tried to explain and they didn’t understand, I grew tenser. My racing grey cells even started suspecting them of killing time until the cops, whom they must have tipped, arrived. Finally, one of the persons from the channel understood what I was speaking about, and then the next moment there was hue and cry on the other side of the telephone. And, now, it was my time to feel astonished.

They simply stated that my image was wrongly embedded into a wrong news piece. The accused was not me. I had won the 8 PM quiz of the channel, the previous night, and the winner with his/her image was to be displayed. She apologized, and asked me to check the news channel again. I turned to the TV, and there it was- the image of another man under the head-bar 'dangerous', and mine at the bottom right corner under the head 'Quiz Winner: 03 March'. She apologized again, a little more profusely, informed me that the clarification shall be put up by the news channel immediately, and hung the call. 

I sat down in front of the TV staring at their 'clarification'. My eyes unfocused, my heart pounding, and my mind still. I felt like I had lost my life and then had it returned to me.

Little Grains Of Sand

Here's a nursery rhyme- some food for thought:

'Little drops of water,

little grains of sand-

Make a mighty ocean

and the pleasant land'

Sounds familiar? Rings a true bell?

'Wow, that's such a cool book he has written.'

'Dude, that guy has an awesome blog.'

'He has released his album, and he is just twenty.'

Before you say that next time, look out for the base that they worked on all these years. Their work is as glorious as it stands on date because it has been honed to perfection by practice, and their number of years of hard and smart work. 

When I was around class three, I had swimming in school, and I was dead scared of the water. My dad decided to push me to learn swimming. I did, eventually. After four years of a lot of patience, pep talks, and cheese-cake baits, I finally overcame my fear of the water. Today, I can't do competitive swimming, but I can swim for my own exercise/relaxation any day. It came with practice- to trust the coach who is teaching me, to trust my strokes on water, to trust that I can swim too- over four years! 

Some of us can pick up things quickly, and some of us can take a longer time to learn. I can learn the concepts in an academic lecture much easier and quicker than I can learn to play the Frisbee. And, for some others, it may be the other way around. And both can be learnt, with just a little practice and patience. 

Consider this blog: it started way back in 2010 when I was just 10 years old, with the only readership audience being my proud parents. If I just want to skip to the part where my blog has a hundred thousand followers and daily readers, it's not going to happen unless I work towards it through the years leading up to it. It may or may not happen in the future, but it definitely won't without consistency and practice. Same thing applies when it comes to weight loss or a toned body. You cannot demand an awesome, fit self if you don't really exercise everyday. 

The concept that was taught to us as kindergarten kids is a big life lesson that we often tend to forget as we grow up. Looking for shortcuts to success is nothing but a real waste of precious time, as there are none. In fact, shortcuts are just going to delay every little moment when you could have actually worked on it. It is not for nothing that we have been taught young that practice makes perfect.

My dad keeps repeating over and again to me, to do my little bit today and not to think too much about whether it would fructify. Your only job is to match your reality every day to your dreams. It will come true automatically, if you work everyday on it. No success story was made on a single day, single hit. 

So let's all tame down on our daydreams, and work towards our dreams, enjoying the process every bit. And, if you don't teach yourself to enjoy the process, it is highly unlikely that you would enjoy the result as much! 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Author: Lynne Truss

I have long had this book with me, reading parts of it, enjoying it, and going back to read parts of it again. Eats, Shoots & Leaves is one of the most hilarious, educating, and readable book on one of the most important part of writing: punctuation. The first time that I picked up to read a chapter on commas, a couple of years ago, I went back to re-evaluate my writing to find that I throw commas randomly in a sentence rather than actually use it! What really is the purpose of a comma? Or, may be there are many?

This book has a chapter each on apostrophes, commas, semicolons and colons, exclamation marks, question marks and quotation marks, italic type, dashes, brackets, ellipses and emoticons, and hyphens. We rarely use a lot of punctuation that we must, and most of the times substitute a comma in its place. We really do lack the comma sense, don't we?

Lynne Truss, in his chapter on commas, dedicates a good portion to discussing the "Oxford" comma, and why it would just be better for all to have it in your sentences! I, for one, absolutely believe that the Oxford Comma is necessary. Like a smart tweet that I saw long, long back said: 

"There are two types of people: those who use the Oxford comma, those who don't and those who should."

Eats, Shoots & Leaves makes you realize your mistakes in a way that ensures in the best way that you remember how to use it the correct way. Filled with an engaging trace of history of punctuation, a relatable discussion on the current levels of knowledge about it (most parts in which you'd identify yourself in the past to have slaughtered the meaningful usage of punctuation marks in sentences), and hilarious anecdotes, the book is filled with activities that help us understand these devices of writing. 

In short, Truss gives you an entertaining workbook that should improve our sense of punctuation. It really does employ a zero tolerance approach! In my opinion, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a book that everyone would enjoy reading!

A List Of Necessary Reminders

Everyday now, I just wait for that usual time I have started exercising, because that seems to be the only time I ever get up from that same chair, same position for way too many days now. Being home because of the lock-down can feel normal for some, and overwhelming for some others. But, we can all agree that our step count is just downright abysmal if not for some voluntary workout. 

This lock-down has made me realize what an active life I had back in college, even without portioning time out for exercise. Ten thousand steps a day used to be something that's a consequence of just living on campus, running thrice a day from hostel to classes to mess and back to hostel, and those post-dinner walks where you just keep walking losing track of time was a blessing! Now, with the lack of all that movement, we end up looking forward to that exercise that we would have rather chosen to skip back in college. Note of disclaimer: I am not talking about those self-motivated humans who don't skip their run-days.

Please, get up and do something, if you aren't already. Two days into it, you'd probably look forward to it because it really does help taking away the feeling of "just sitting" through the whole day. On that note, here are some important reminders:

1. Drink enough water. Less movement may make us less thirsty. But, your body still needs to stay hydrated, especially with the oncoming summer. 

2. Wear proper outfits for your workouts. If your workout needs a shoe, then wear it. If your workout needs a mat, then use it. Do not do any make-shift jugaad when it comes to workouts. Getting injured is not worth it. And also, this might just be one of the worst times to get injured.

3. Eat well. Don't skip meals. Again, staying put, without any workout can make you feel that you aren't really hungry, at least for some of you. Eat healthy, eat smart, but eat. 

4. Get all the beauty sleep that you need. This is the time where you can't blame work instead of the lousy sleep habits. Yes, once it is a habit, it is difficult to change. But, you have the time to try and fall into a better habit!

5. Do things you always wanted to. It may not be productive, but this is probably a guilt-free time to try it out. So don't hold back!

6. Finally, go stand outside on your terrace for a while maybe. Your body needs the sun!

Let us all act sensibly and responsibly. Let us try to be empathetic. Nobody can force us to do something that the world feels is good, but we definitely owe it to the world not to do what we know is wrong. 

Wash your hands, stay in, stay safe and, most importantly, take care of yourself!

So Many Books, So Little Time

Title: So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year Of Passionate Reading

Author: Sara Nelson

Sara Nelson got hooked to books after finding it to be a cheaper alternative to movies, at a time when she'd have already seen the Movie Of The Week before it came out in the papers, and found it better than having to forcefully talk to a 'narrow circle of not-so-friendly friends' as she adapted to her life of living alone in New York. And, from then on, there was no turning back. As Sara pledges herself to a self-assigned project of reading at least two books a week throughout the year, which falls apart after the first week, she records the ups and downs of her reading that year in this brilliant book that is a treasure trove for bibliophiles. 

When I picked up this book to read today, it felt like a book that I wouldn't read in a single sitting, but would probably stretch to a couple of chapters at a time. How wrong I was! So Many Books, So Little Time is a highly engaging, brilliantly written, honest and passionate account of Nelson's reading journey that somehow manages to rekindle the same passion in the readers, too!

Any reader is always tempted to hoard books, some of which they may read the very day they buy, and others just decorating the shelf for years together before they lay their hand on it again. Every time you look at the book that you bought but managed not even to open, there is a slight guilt that would probably make you to put the book at a slightly higher shelf so it can conveniently miss your eyes as they scan the shelf for the next book. The author beautifully captures the feeling, and brings out anecdotes of the books she bought, when and why she bought them, and how she hasn't even opened them though she definitely means to on the 'right day'. Hoarding her favourite collections in the wooden shelves designed by her husband Leo, she talks about those books that she expended hundreds of late-night hours on. 

By Sara's highly relatable theory, there are two rules to successfully reading and enjoying a book: right time, and right place. I couldn't agree more with her. There are some books that you would never enjoy unless you read it at the right time and place. I know for a fact that my brother never got around to reading Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe beyond the first few chapters, though I always believed he would enjoy it and kept pushing him to try it again. Thinking back, it may be because it wasn't the right time and he probably started the book a tad bit earlier than he should have, but later the aversion and the mindset about it made sure he never picked it up again.

The book is unimaginably familiar in some parts where you get an unexplained, silly dislike towards those books that are over-hyped, and where the general talk of the book has been on the tone that places an obligation on you to state you loved it. Like Nelson puts it: 

"We're a funny, cliquish group, we book people, and sometimes we resist liking—or even resist opening—the very thing everybody tells us we're supposed to like."

The book stole my heart with the author's genuineness as she writes about how we always tend to judge people by the books they read, whether knowingly or unknowingly, and how if she ever wanted to read Daniel Steele she would do it in her home and not take it outside. This is something that is so relatable. Whatever kind of reader you are, there are some books that you devour in your home for guilty pleasure without having to damage your well-known reputation for reading Dickens or, even better, flaunting the Nietzsche you probably never read. When I shared this part of the book with my dad, we had a good laugh as he jogged back the memory to his schooldays when he went around carrying Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare not having ever read a word of it! Though I  never carried around a book to that would help some show-off, there have been several instances when I have made sure I don't carry a lot of them, after severely judging myself for reading them! Nope, still not going to let you know what they were! 

On that note, about sharing, most bibliophiles have a compulsive and irresistible urge to share all that they read about, and all the opinions that they framed on it. I have, through my entire school life, bombarded my parents with an excited, dramatic re-narration of almost every novel I read. Sara Nelson, very lovably and in a way that we all relate to, says how her husband and her son have always listened to her excited narration: "only occasionally telling her to knock it off when she nattered on about stuff they knew nothing about and about which they cared less." 

My life at school was mostly just reading. I hadn't watched a lot of movies, and TV shows were particularly alien to me. I had often told my college friends exactly the same thing as this paragraph that I found in the book, an icing on the cake for me when it came to how relatable the book was:

"But there's a lot I haven't done, a lot of places I haven't gone. To tell the truth, I've been lost in more than a couple of Conversations with people who tend to make references to new restaurants, important magazine articles, and popular TV shows; can you believe I've never seen Friends? Not that I'm complaining. I've lived the past year exactly how I've wanted to—between the covers of books and in the places in my head that those books have taken me. I've been agitated, ex-cited, enthralled, annoyed, frustrated, and sometimes a little bored." 

I am absolutely thankful for reading all the books that I have read, and also for reading So Many Books, So Little Time. Into the first ten pages, I scrambled back to get my diary and a pen. It was such a pleasurable, joyous read, that took me by surprise as I went chirpily from one chapter to another, duly jotting down the interesting titles in a legible scribble, and made a mental note of the ones I wanted to get on reading immediately!

I cannot cover all the things that this book made me happy about in this post. All I can say is, this is a book that you would love.

The frankness of Sara Nelson, as the self-described "readaholic", is  absolutely refreshing.

'When things go right, I read. When things go wrong, I read more!' Pick up this book to get a dose of that passion, and a satisfying list of suggestions!

Family Court Warning: High Charge Emotion(Melodrama?) Zone Ahead

I can write a huge article, or give it to you in one line: the first time I entered a family court, I felt like I was watching a Tamil serial. Melodrama, melodrama, melodrama. Don't mistake me, it is not a joke. The family court is either highly melodramatic or absolutely boring for me, from the few experiences that I have had as a student of law. But, it is a court that has been made specially to handle the families with a highly charged emotional atmosphere. Family Court is a very sensitive place, and is a fully powered emotional zone. This doesn't come across as surprising, because the matters are of a nature that is deeply connected to the individuals and their families involved in the case. Thanks to a litigation internship that I did with working advocates in the Madras High Court, I was sent to the family court on the very second day of my first ever proper legal internship. 

Section 7(1) and (2) of the Family Courts Act of 1984, describes the kind of disputes over which the family court has the jurisdiction. A family court shall be deemed to exercise the jurisdiction under such law, to be a district court or, as the case may be, any subordinate civil court in the area to which jurisdiction of family court extends.

The suits and proceedings referred in the above-mentioned section are of the following nature between the parties to the petition:

- a decree of nullity of marriage (declaring the marriage to be null and void) or restitution of conjugal rights, or judicial separation or dissolution of marriage.

- the validity of a marriage or the matrimonial status of the person

- the property of the parties or property of either of them.

- order or injunction in the situation arising out of a marital relationship.

- the declaration as to the legitimacy of any person.

- maintenance.

- guardianship of the person or the custody of, or access to the minor.

Cases in the family court involve subjects of high controversy to which usually there is no one right or wrong that can be pinpointed. It may involve mistakes from either one party or both, and the mistakes may be deliberate or unknowing. And, most of the times, there is a lot of fleeting statements by both parties, especially in cases revolving around marriage, and it is next to impossible to determine whether the party actually means it or whether it was said in an emotional fit. 

A good judgment is considered to be neutral, based solely on the facts and evidences available for a case, devoid of bias or emotions overclouding justice. However, cases deal with humans, and when humans are involved it is seldom without at least a tinge of emotion. 

The first time I went into the family court, a woman was crying, loudly, and arguing her case for maintenance by herself without allowing her lawyer to talk to the judge. The judge requested the woman several times to calm down and allow her lawyer to speak, but in vain. There were some in the court laughing at the woman, the lawyer was trying to pacify her and get her to allow him to speak, and the judge was getting irritated. I have never ever seen someone cry that loudly until that day, and she was correcting the judge also when he was trying to talk. The whole air was so charged with high drama that I had to get out for a fresh whiff of air. The case was adjourned to after lunch after a full 45 minutes of drama and overreaction by the woman, and I never went back there after lunch. 

And, a few other times when I had to go to the family court, I overheard conversations and saw scenes that sometimes came across as way too dramatic. But hey, it is not for nothing they have a separate Family Court! As much as you want to appreciate and not mock the sensitivity, sometimes the sequence of events and conversations at the family court can be too funny to not break into a slight amused smile. 

Don't you dare take it further than slight- not unless you want a menacing glare from the judge that can make you hear the words GET OUT without anyone saying it!

I am not a fan of the family court myself. I usually took the first opportunity to exit and visit other courtrooms during my internship. But, if you ever get an opportunity, take a sneak peek into the family court. Not for the drama, but let it teach you the infinite lacunae in the pace of the cases, the inevitable backlogging true to the saying 'justice delayed is justice denied', the huge amount of familial issues that come up every single day, and the sensitivity surrounding it!

I can guarantee you that the high charge atmosphere has very important lessons to teach!

#MyYearInBooks : 2020 Reading Challenge

COVID-19 has decisively made sure that 2020 is going to be a year that would be much better for us if we bother to stay indoors. And, reading wins the coolest indoor activity category hands down.

I used to be a regular visitor to Goodreads a couple of years back, but I had stopped in between. Today, I stumbled upon an interesting collection of Tejas Rao's 'Year In Books', and that got me excited enough to revisit the good old Goodreads. I don't know how long the feature has been there, and I don't know if it has been there almost forever. But, it doesn't matter, I found out about it today. I have to say, as I signed in, an involuntary grin was pinned to my face as my eyes crinkled in happiness. If you want to know why, take a good look at the picture below: a small part of the collection I had kept on Goodreads. 

Wait, did you smile too? I can see your lips faintly curving upward as your eyes soften fondly. It took me back to when I was actually keeping a track of the books I read on Goodreads, and the memories of those beautiful books came flooding back. Isn't that what keeping a record is for? It serves as a beautiful repository of fond memories, and Goodreads does that in a way that looks so nice! In fact, my blog began as an effort to keep track of the books that I used to read day-in-day-out. I just wanted to have a string of posts that I can look back on, and smile at. 

The "Year In Books" is another cool challenge (and a very cool display) of what you read through the year! You can set your reading goal, and keep tracking the books you read, and the stats of which are beautifully complied for you in your "My Year In Books" page. 

My dad's immediate reaction when I showed him the above progress bar: mathematics. If I had to read 100 books per year, then it had to be around eight and a half books a month. And, it is already three months with just 15 books. Tut-tut, Sandhya, you're lagging behind. True, but once I get in the flow, only the supply of the books matter. I usually finish books in a single sitting, or within the same day, mostly because most of them are highly compelling and unputdownable. 

You can check out "My Year 2020 In Books", as I keep adding to it, here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/5777749. Or, you can always find a new tab that I have added in the pages bar: "Year In Books- 2020". 

I thought this was a great idea to share the books that we all read, in order to read more, and hence decided to do a post on this! Even with an extensive repository like my blog, I have to say the Goodreads Year In Books page looks too attractive, with it's dynamic and modern design, to not try it out! If you take a look at the right hand column of tabs in my blog, I've added a super cool '2020 Reading Challenge' widget provided by Goodreads. So, as I track my books now, you can keep an eye on your home-girl (thanks in advance)! 

So, read with me, and share the books that you read. This is a brilliant way to showcase the books that demanded our awe and attention, and also get new suggestions and explore more through other people's Year In Books page on Goodreads! We are on a break now, and we don't know how it would be if we get back to school/college/work. It makes sense that we use this time to tick away all our pending wish-lists that we have as a community of bibliophiles. What are you waiting for? Just take the efforts to open a book, it'll take care of the rest!

Let it truly be a year in books! Happy reading!

A Lamp, Or A Smile?

Day nine of the #NaPoWriMo prompt was once again too interesting to be ignored simply due to a self imagined lack of poetic vein. NaPoWriMo prompt said: "Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a “concrete” poem – a poem in which the lines and words are organized to take a shape that reflects in some way the theme of the poem."

So, here I present to you, my concrete poetry: about something that brings light in the lives of all of us!

A

simile.

Moonlight,

 white wonder 

cast upon a sheet of dark grey night.

Shimmering, glittering, binding all beings- 

a wondrous spell, bathed in soothing

dreams of hope and light.

Compare.

To?

A smile.

Carefree.

Infectious.

Hopeful.

Joyous.

Bright,

as a beam

of sunlight.

As you look at the smile,

forget not: to check

if they reached the eyes.

Hope you liked it! You can drop me feedback in the comments below. And hey, I'm still working on that poetry angle, excuse me! 

In The Words Of Dickens: The Good Ships Law and Equity

Equity is one legal subject that is easy to study (also, difficult to score in). One week before our mid-semesters, after a preliminary session on bothering to glance through the roughly made notes of what the teacher had taught in the 20 hours of lectures, equity is one subject that you catch on with quickly. 

Equity is a wide concept without a specific boundary but guided by what are known as the maxims of equity. The maxims of equity are legal maxims which serve as a collection of general principles or laws which are said to regulate the way equity functions. By comparison to common law, they seek to highlight the virtues of equity as a more versatile, sensitive approach to the individual's needs, willing to take into account the actions and conduct of the parties. These concepts were evolved by the Chancery Courts in England. If you are interested to take a peek at how the Chancery Courts worked, you should check out Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

There are 12 maxims of equity, and when I list them out here you'd know why I said they were the easiest. 

1. Equity will not suffer a wrong without a remedy.
2. Equity follows the law.
3. Where there is equal equity, the law shall prevail.
4. Where the equities are equal, the first in time shall prevail.
5. He who seeks equity must do equity.
6. He who comes into equity must come with clean hands.
7. Delay defeats equities.
8. Equality is equity.
9. Equity looks to the intent rather than the form.
10. Equity looks on that as done which ought to be done.
11. Equity imputes an intention to fulfill an obligation.
12. Equity acts in personam.

Did any of that need explaining? I'm guessing, not at all. Equity was one subject that we learnt, and then could jokingly use those maxims in day to day life. They make so much sense, and they are something that every prudent man knows. To express in an oversimplified manner: while the common law sticks to the rigidity of the structural and procedural technicalities, equity stresses on what you could classify as using common sense to decide whether the actions of the parties were fair or not. 

In India, law is equity, and equity is law. They go hand in hand. We do not have separate courts of equity, neither do we have separate laws to govern equity. Our courts are in themselves believed to imbibe equity in the judgments, and our law is also considered to be equitable. 

Wouldn't it be an interesting pursuit to observe the actual implications of equity on a rigid law!

A Time To Kill

Title: A Time To Kill

Author: John Grisham

Carl Lee, an African-American distraught father who kills the two men responsible for the brutal rape of his ten year old daughter, is charged with capital murder. Jake Brigance, a close friend and white attorney, represents Carl Lee in his gruesome trial. Jake is aided by a pro-bono team of Lucien and Harry Rex to fight the case down to every possible thread, and finally they settle for the last possible defense: the plea of insanity. 

Set in a fictitious town of Ford County around the time period where the racial discrimination against the African-Americans was at its peak, Grisham's legal thriller projects and discusses through the simply woven story line about the steep unfairness and the biases of the judges almost always leading to an injustice served. 

The book also captures the support and the feelings of the fraternity of the African-American characters. As Jake and his friends fight the case, they also get a lot of aid and under-the-table illicit information from those departments where there is a rare African-American to help. During the plea of insanity backed up by a medical test, Jake presents before the jury an undeniably guilty string of corroborative evidences against the court doctor, who in all the previous cases wantonly denied the defense of insanity to all the African-Americans, and this had led to all of them receiving a death penalty. How Jake and his band of determined attorneys manage to get the acquittal of Carl Lee makes the crux of the novel.

The novel sometimes plays out more as an action sequence with killings, fights, bombs, and what not! Yet, A Time To Kill is not something that's a page-turner. There is nothing of the sort that you could call major twists or turns in the plot. The trajectory of the story is something that is well-expected out of it. It revolves around and focuses on death penalty, racism and injustice. If you have already read a book like To Kill A Mockingbird, then this wouldn't come across as eye-opening. 

However, it was a nice read. 

Moonlight Marauders

Title: Moonlight Marauders: IAF Fighter Squadron Strikes by Night Indo-Pak War, Dec 1971

Author: Teshter Master 

On the first of February, 1971 there came a decisive step that changed the game of the Indo-Pak War that year. For the first ever time, 211 personnel were called to report, each with their own outstanding capabilities, and in the 7 Wing Air Force Station at Adampur, Punjab was formed the Tactics & Combat Development & Training Squadron (TCDTS) of the Indian Air Force. As the book puts it, "the pilots were considered to be the crème de la crème of fighter pilots in the IAF". 

A story, as thrilling as it can get, where the newly formed TCDTS is asked at an extremely short notice to perform a task in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Shrouded in secrecy, the squadron had a small, decisive, and one of the most important war tasks. Set out in moonlight, the Squadron was bound by the duty of a unique contribution during this legendary war between India and Pakistan: "to carry out Low-Level Night Strikes against highly defended and important air bases in the Northern Sector of West Pakistan." And, what better team than the this squadron that was waiting for this rare opportunity of the Air Force to give a solid blow to the enemy!

Describing their raid attacks over moonlight, chapters of the book vividly describe as the fighter pilots fly in the nothingness of the dark night and the little light allowed by the moon, channeling their focus guided by their gut and expertise. Flying the Mig-21s and the Su-7 at such a low altitude for the first time, to successfully escape the radars that capture their movements, the IAF fighter pilots push themselves to train through unending simulations, trying that much harder to be better than the previous ones. It is lovely to read the passion with which the author writes about the aircraft, admiring their beauty "to look and to fly". 

The primary source of the book being his personal flying records in log book during the days of the 1971 war, Teshter Master weaves before our eyes a beautifully written, technically detailed, and emotionally sound story that closely follows the activities immediately after the founding of TCDTS, as the squadron trains night in and out striving to be war-worthy, and determined to play the key role of moonlight marauders. Even the crème de la crème fighter pilots are but human. The story is not one adrift of the emotions undergone by the fighter pilots. Master beautifully blends in his worry about his wife Daphne and their two kids, along with the ruthless training that they undergo to make their task in the war a success.

The book has a crying victory of our cheerful, dedicated and spirited squadron, for whom, by that time of the book, you'd already be rooting for. The warmth of success is ended by Teshter Master in the sweet yearnings of his squadron to go home, on a well-deserved and long impending leave from duty. 

Towards the end of the book, a note of the reunion of TCDTS, and also a very close and fond word about each member in the reunion by the author makes the book very special. It also has appendices that give you a glimpse from the Squadron diary, a narration of the Engineering Squadron's efforts, and also the milestones in TCDTS from 1971 to 2015. The book also lets you into the awards and glories that the TCDTS received over the years.

The narrative of the story is with a tone of awe-demanding, worthy pride. Detailed and exciting, the pace of the story ensures that you would probably become so invested while reading the story that it is not improbable that you would see them flash by in front of your eyes. 

Moonlight Marauders was a wonderful read. Those who understand the technicalities of flying would thoroughly enjoy every word of the book. And, those who may not understand every word: again, would thoroughly enjoy every word. 

Pick up your copy today to journey with the most exciting and spirited squadron that you would come to love by the time you reach the final page! 

Can You Live Without Your Phone?

No, this is not a post where I am going to lecture you on the beauty of life without your eyes constantly glued to the phone. Nope, I am not your mom. But, hey, once in a while, maybe listen to her? 

Can you live without your phone? Interesting question. Well, technically yes. We are all so consumed with our lives, an integral part of which is our phone, but we can very well stay alive without it. However, what I meant through the question is whether other devices can compensate the functionalities of your phone? If not a phone, could all other necessary activities be completed through your laptop, or any other device at home? And, the answer to that question differs from person to person. I am here to only talk about my experience. 

For a start, let me introduce you to my Lenovo K8 Note, a ragged looking two year old that I dropped way more than once, and she has deep scratches and chips all over her screen. However, like a lady wearing make up, she has over her broken screen a nice layer of the finest tempered glass (which I have successfully managed not to break yet). She has been working fine, until one day she just went off. She went a little cranky, and hard reset herself and I lost all data. The phone just powered off for reasons that is beyond my technical comprehension. And, truth is, this can happen to any device, anytime, anywhere, and is just beyond control.

Of course, this entailed a whole day of fervent prayers, and repeated attempts to boot it up, in vain. The phone has been off for the past few days. And, could I live without a phone? At first, I needed a couple of messages that was supposed to go to the phone number, and the phone was off. Solving that was easy, I just had to remove the sim and use it on my dad's phone that had a dual sim. And, the rest? Whatsapp is the only other app that I need a phone for. Otherwise, everything just works fine on the web. And also, Whatsapp thankfully is not an essential for me.

Since young, my dad had always insisted that we back up everything on the cloud. And, that has always stood me in good stead. While the hard reset erased all the data from my phone, I did not in the real sense lose anything. 

have to say google accounts with sync across all devices is pretty cool- especially when your phone crashes in less than a second stubbornly refusing to power up again

— Sandhya Varadharajan (@sandhya_varadh) April 2, 2020

I also happen to own Asus Chromebook that supports android applications. So, for me, life has always been on the cloud with Google. I can tell you from experience that backing up on a cloud platform is the best thing you can do to keep your data safe and accessible all the time. 

Also, the phone crash obviously brought about some basic lessons lectured by my dad, who has a knack of coming up with the right opportunities to teach you something that might be necessary as a basic life lesson. This phone crash can happen anywhere, anytime. I was at home, so it was easier to handle it. It can happen during travel, in a new city that speaks an unfamiliar language. It is always important to be prepared for such situations. Always carry important numbers/addresses with you on a physical copy of paper. Always know by heart the numbers of your closest contacts that you might want to reach out to anytime- which could be your children, parents, spouse, anybody. 

It is so easy for us today to be completely under-prepared when a gadget fails, especially one as important and integral in our lives as a phone. 

So, the moral of this story: essentially, and always, be prepared.

Whims and Fancies Of An Ethereal Childhood

I don't really write poems, not my domain. However, the NaPoWriMo prompt of today (Day 4) reminded me the one dream-imagery that dominated most of my childhood. The moment I read it I was thrown back to cherishing that slaphappy memory, so I wrote something about it anyway, whether you'd classify it as a poem or not.

The prompt: to write a poem based on an image from a dream.

Drops of heavy rain fall hard,

there is a knock on the door,

the middle of night.

Heart pounds fast, 

the thought of it

numbing, in excitement.

Eleventh birthday, they said, 

and the unending wait had 

come to cease.

The knock, again.

Heart pounds faster,

the wind whistles the tune of hope,

the hoot of an owl builds up

the nearing time.

Not one more civilized knock,

but a knocked down door.

A wet, giant Hagrid stands 

clueless, eyes darting in search

of the little girl.

'Congrats, kid. Happy birthday!'

he booms.

'Sandhya- yer a wizard.'

There is silence.

Only the whistling wind,

could be heard.

Anyone who knew me around my middle school times can vouch for a fact that I went around saying I'd deny the most prestigious institution any day only to get acceptance from Hogwarts. It was my happy place, and many thanks to J. K. Rowling for that beautiful story that made us all yearn to get in. I was so carried away by the story that I actually believed that on my eleventh birthday I would actually get into Hogwarts. I even did the base of lecturing my mom as an attempt to convince her into sending me to Hogwarts. Ah, that was an acceptable disappointment. And, thanks to my wonderful friends, the long dream was finally fulfilled on my 19th birthday! Thanks to all of you who let me have my whims and fancies of an ethereal childhood with Harry Potter and the world of books!

How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market

Title: How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market

Author: Nicholas Darvas

The stock market is as closest to magical money as we know it. Darvas, in this brilliantly written retrospective look at how he made $2,000,000 over 18 months in the stock market, takes us through what looks like a series of natural common sense actions that we would do, which he also did, and journals the change in his approach to the markets as he gets his sweet profits and woeful losses.

A dancer by profession, with not an inkling of knowledge about markets or stocks, Darvas stumbles upon the concept for the first time when his clients of his dance show agree to pay him in stocks of a Company they are interested in, instead of cash. Later, due to good conscience he purchases the stocks anyway, though he is unable to perform the show for his client. A careless glance at the papers one morning makes him realize he has doubled his profits. With this sweet introductory taste of success, he continues to experiment in the Canadian mine companies in the market. 

From a blind-eyed gambler, investing on stocks based on crude trust and rumours under the garb of 'inside information', Darvas is quick to realize that his small profits were nothing but sheer luck, and he seeks to improvise his market methods to something better informed. He started his gambling phase at the Canadian markets, but however when he finally wraps it up and starts his work in the Wall Street, he aims to be a fundamentalist. 

Through his fundamental and technical approaches, both of which individually fail Darvas' attempt to have a formula that he can apply on stocks, he finally realizes that it's not a case of either but rather a techno-fundamentalist approach to stocks that actually works, that looks at both the fundamental workings of the Company, and also the dynamic numbers and volumes associated with the stock. 

The book is filled with pieces out of Darvas' record of what stocks he bought, how they behaved and where we went wrong or right. This makes the book in itself a standing example of what Darvas describes. It is not a book that comes down heavy on you with jargon. Darvas himself, in fact, being a dancer, starts at the very beginning when he knew nothing about stocks, and walks you all the way through how he came to make the $2,000,000.

A long time ago, way back in 2014, I read this book, and wrote a post: Five Points That I Learnt From “How I Made $2 Million In The Stock Market”. And, I learnt a whole lot of things this time that I can't incorporate all of them in this review of the book! I shall definitely do another post on it, stay tuned. 

This is an absolutely brilliant, fun, and quick read that not only amply warns about the natural course of stupidity that the brain would like to adopt in the market, but also  garners a hope that Darvas clearly maintains throughout the book that even a person who doesn't know what a stock is can hit it off big time in the markets with steady experience leading to corrective learning, and more experience!

I loved it more when I read it this second time around!

The Palace Of Illusions

Title: The Palace Of Illusions

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I usually am not fond of reading re-imaginations of Indian mythological stories. That is probably because I have heard them several times before, and also heard them in the best possible style. Poetic adaptations are sometimes fun to read, and we had a lot of them during our Tamil classic literature lessons in school. However, I picked up this book to read sometime back.

Most of us have heard the stories from the epic Mahabharata. It has for years been retold, and stalwart poets have re-imagined the tale in their fluent, mesmerizing verses. Chitra Banerjee in The Palace of Illusions attempts to re-imagine a part of the epic, but from the narrative point of view of Panchali. Starting from the birth of Draupadi as a maiden out of pious fire, till the end, the narrative is maintained from the perspective of Panchali. 

The story is not the one that is captivating in this book. We all know them well, and sometimes know it from sources we trust better, and have heard some amazing narrations. Yet, the only reason this book is any different is the twist in who is narrating the story. The idea to re-imagine from the perspective of one of the best, and most classic characters of the Mahabharata, especially that being a woman- is what the book aims to deliver. 

The Palace of Illusions is purely a re-imagining of the Mahabharata from the author's perspective of how Panchali might have seen it. It is an interesting experiment, written commendably. The narrative has just the right pace, and is highly engaging. It is must be given to the credit of the author, to have made the story engaging despite us having known every story before. The book is an engaging read, and the flow of the author as to how Panchali might have narrated it has been a refreshing read. However, I personally did not feel overwhelmed by the book, as compared to a lot of people who seemed to have been.

Finally, to wrap it up in one line, the readers have to bear in mind just one thing: it is not the Mahabharata, it is an imaginative retelling of stories from the epic as imagined by the author from the narrative of Panchali. 

 It was an interesting read, although!

The Snow Gel Queen Demands Her Tribute

Happiness was at it's best when we were in school. In the final years of my primary schooling, towards the end term of my fifth standard life, there came a life-turning point. It was a significant one- one that would mould my preference and dominate for the rest of my school years, still does in college, and would probably do through the rest of my life. A bunch of ten-year-olds excitedly bid adieu to term two of Class V. When we returned after that short term break of ten days, we were to return as those who were going to take that first step into what seemed like a 'grown-ups' life. In the third term of Class V, we graduated from a pencil to a pen. Yes, a pen.

Our school had a rule that you could use only a gel pen or an ink pen. Ball pens were strictly prohibited until Class VIII. The class was in two factions- those who wrote with their fancy ink pens, and those with the gel pens. Actually, there was a third faction too- the ones that bought only and only Trimax.

Class V was an exciting phase with a full-on pen exploration undertaken by all the kids. My first ink pen was a classic green Camlin ink pen. Well, it pretty soon turned out that it didn't work that well for me. There were hoards of other famous ones like Jumbo and Camel that others used. The ultimate favourite ink pen that, as kids, we went frenzy about was Grippy, an ink pen with a new comic designed body. Out of the 35 in my class, 30 of us had it, whether we liked ink pens or not. It was just a cult necessity. There were those few who showed off their Parkers, and a few others stuck to their Luxor stick pens. But then later, I found that I didn't like ink pens at all much, and then I diverged out to explore gel pen options.

And, then came a phase of Pelicans, Pilot, and Trimax. They were the top of the game. With an amazing flow, and pen caps that somersault, Trimax was an instant favourite for all of us. But the common issue among all of them was that they were expensive. Thirty rupees for a pen, and eighteen rupees for a refill. We found that the ink was gone in a week, for all the notes that we took down. We set out to find cheaper alternatives. 

That was the period of the discovery of Snow Gel and Reynolds Racer Gel in our lives. Again, all the Grippys, Trimax, Pelicans were duly replaced by the five-rupee Snow Gel that lasted for over two weeks. True, the caps didn't somersault. But hey, they came in so many colours!

I was always a gel pen girl, but that's only till the end of Class VI. The most rebellious thing we ever did in school was to use a ball pen before Class VIII. Woah, wow, what cool kids, and what a wondrous life! Right? It was fun to sneak in one paper written in all ball, amongst those other papers written in ink and gel! Later, when my brother went through the same phase in school, I was strictly warned by my parents not to teach him such wrong lessons. 

To date, I am a ball-pen girl. And I positively love those three/four/five rupee pens. In my opinion, drawn from my extensive experience from experimentation, they work the best! Their flow is just brilliant, they are absolutely cost-effective, and they last for a decently long period. Also, bonus points, they don't break if you drop, they don't ever leak, and you don't feel that guilty if you lose them (though you should, losing is bad), or someone whom you lent it to didn't return it. 

When I see someone taking notes with a pencil during lectures at the University, I am always reminded of this. Today, I was looking for a pencil to mark something on my notebook, and again was reminded of this. 

As the Snow Gel Queen demands her tribute, I present to you this post- the adventures of happy 10-year olds who decided the faction of pens they belonged to!

North And South

Title: North and South

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret Hale, eighteen, lives in London with her cousin Edith and her affluent Aunt Shaw for over 10 years. And, when Edith marries Captain Lennox, Margaret happily returns to the southern village of Helstone, which she had been missing for quite a while during her stay in London. Margaret refuses an offer of proposal of marriage by the Captain's brother, Henry, training underway to become a barrister. Her life is taken around on an unexpected spin when her pious father, the local pastor, leaves the Church of England and the rectory of Helstone involving certain issues, as a matter of conscience. Father and daughter leave the comfort of their village, and shift into a town in Milton-Northern. 

The story follows Margaret as she gets involved with the brash life of the industrial society of the town, and how her abject dismissal of the town turns to a growing fondness for it over the eighteen months that she stays in the town. Love and life hits a young, determined and happy Margaret as she involves herself with the hard-working but poverty stricken people of the town. 

This classic has one of the strongest leads that I have ever read. First published in 1854, Elizabeth Gaskell's Margaret is an example of the then emerging modern day woman, who is solid in her opinions and intuitions, and puts a strong foot forward to lead others. Gaskell neatly ties up all the confronting themes of her society, and deals with modernity, tradition, rebellion, authority, love and hope with elegance.

I am fan of classic fiction. And, this one is an invaluable addition to my wonderful library of classics. It proves to us that strength, be it in a woman or a man, is not a new concept, and in fact is age old and gold! I am forever amazed by these wonderful authors who could portray a storm of a character like Margaret in this book, and Daisy Miller in Daisy Miller by Henry James. Books like these undeniably draw me closer to devour classic fiction. 

I loved North and South, and so will you!