A Pilgrim

 Before joining IIT Kanpur in the year 2003, I happened to spend few weeks with one of my friend studying at IIT Delhi, I stayed in his room in Aravali hostel for the period. During the same period, I got to make new friends both within campus and outside of campus, one such friend was Vijayant Singh who came to stay in Aravali hostel around the same time for his mandatory internship as part of his National Law school Jodhpur curriculum(even though internship was at TERI but somehow he managed to get room at IIT Delhi Hostel). That was first time, I thought about law as career option and was in fact impressed by possibilities in this field. Vijayant took me to TERI with him, where he was doing internship and introduced me to some of his friends there, during the course of conversation with them I got to know about the kind of work they are into, like when I visited them, some study on river linking project was going on. One of his friend told me about how she went on to do previous trainings with UN agencies, NGOs, and so on. This all was so much interesting for me, something I would really love to do and I regretted then that national law school was unknown to me as an option so far.

After spending two years at IIT Kanpur, creating enough of mess with myself academically and personally, I called quit and decided to do a quick graduation in order to be eligible for management program at some good B School. Three year Maths hons at Delhi University college was decided finally as the program to be pursued, though other options like Bachelors in commerce  and bachelors in art through correspondence were also considered. It was not easy for me to make this transition from IIT to this college of Delhi University, more difficult part was to attend classes in all together different setting. Right from classrooms to teachers to students, every aspect of this new college life made me feel uncomfortable. In between I considered option of national law school but I was disappointed to know that by the time I could appear in next entrance, I would have passed 21 years of age and hence ineligible to go for that. Next three years make a separate story in itself which is not subject of this post so skipping all that in between, as thought earlier about next thing to do after graduation, I appeared in B School entrance tests and after group discussions and interviews, finally managed to get a place in MDI Gurgaon.

MDI Gurgaon made me feel alive again,  to put in better words, made me feel young again. But that fun was to last only for first 3 months, for some reasons, I came back home again. Situation at home was tense, everything seemed to be going great since last few months and again train seems to have derailed. Next dream shared with parents was that of civil services and soon enough, seeing will of God and some grand plans on the part of almighty for me in future, my mother and father made peace with me. Nothing much changed for me, I continued reading books, buying more and more every month rather than relying on library as in the past. To be on safer side along with preparation of one such exam, I thought of pursuing MA political science from IGNOU, even got the application form but then dropped the idea. Appearing for JNU entrance exam next year for MA programs was also appealing to me but then I remembered law again and decided to go for Faculty of law Delhi University, there are 1500 seats and with this many seats I was sure of making it to law faculty. As for civil services exam preparation, my interest readings in any case covers most of syllabus for general studies and that of one of my optional subject which is philosophy, but my first optional is mathematics and I have somehow lost zeal to study this subject any more.  Finally, I appeared for law entrance for Delhi University on 22nd March 2009, this time question paper was allowed to be taken back home and that made it easy for me to calculate my probable marks secured which I calculated to be comfortably above 400 out of 700 and hence admission was almost confirmed. Result was declared within next 10 days and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself at General category rank 10.

This seems like a good omen and I have finally decided to take plunge into legal field.  First legal stalwart who impressed me was Nani A Palkhivala, he was introduced to me by Granville Austin and then I followed that up with books authored by Palkhivala titled “we the people” and “we the nation”. Further, I read biography of Nani Palkhivala by M V Kamanth last year only. There is one good article on Nani Palkhivala by Soli Sorabjee which can be easily searched on Internet. Recently I purchased H M Seervai’s three volumes on constitutional law, I intend to study them religiously along with constitutional assembly debates(five volumes). Last read book was by M C Setalvad, first attorney General of India, titled “My life: law and other things”. “My own Boswell” by M Hidayatullah, “the court and the constitution of India” by O. Chinnappa Reddy and “Democracy and constitutionalism in India” by Sudhir Krishnaswamy are being read currently. Before the actual commencement of program at Campus law centre, I hope to get over with at least this much.

God bless me