It had started off as a normal day for me when after meeting some sources; I was on my way from Andheri to Churchgate to file my stories for the day on a hot Saturday afternoon. Things started going south at the platform when a puny 16 year old boy tried to pick my wallet while I was trying to fight my way inside the train compartment. The kid had even managed to have my wallet in his hands and was about to flee but for the watchful eye of another commuter, who managed to catch him by the scruff of his neck and drag him inside the compartment behind me.
The gentleman then came up to me and handed me my wallet, which I took thankfully and was just turning to see the little thief standing sheepishly besides my Good Samaritan when a fist exploded in his eye, jerking his head back and drawing a heart rending cry from the teen. Even before I could muster up any emotion towards the pitiful looking thief in his tattered shirt and jeans, another fist crashed in his ribs, almost dropping him. Within a fraction of a second, the group of 7-8 commuters in the first class compartment, who till then had been napping or reading their newspapers or cheerily chatting to their friends on their cell-phones had worked themselves up in a rage of biblical proportions and had surrounded the boy, eager to unleash what they thought of as justice on the skinny pickpocket.
I knew the kid was in for a major pain trip but was too shocked for a moment at the mob's rage to think about how to neutralize the situation. Moreover, some of the commuters were eyeing me strangely because I, the victim of the attempted theft had not laid a finger on him yet. Maybe they thought I was a wimp, but I could not bring myself to hit the cowering, weeping boy whose injured eye was already starting to swell. When another commuter kicked him savagely in the groin, I decided to end the potential massacre and grabbing the boy, made him get down from the train at Bandra, announcing to everyone that I was taking him to the police station. That seemed to satisfy the vigilante ‘tough guys’ and they went back to what they were doing earlier.
Not that I had any intention of letting the chap run away. I did take him to the police station and informed the cop on duty there about his juvenile status and my lack of enthusiasm for filing an official police complaint. On knowing this, the cops decided to just growlingly threaten him about what they would do to him if he was caught stealing the next time. Cops can be pretty scary dudes when they put their minds to it and I was sure they had managed to put the fear of God in him before letting him go, which had been my original intention in bringing him there. Maybe he might steal again, maybe he won’t...
I realized one thing that day-despite growing up on comic books about vigilante superheroes, now I don’t think vigilantes are so ‘cool’ to be around after all…
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Why I gave up being a Lawyer...
My first appearance in court and I was ready to unleash my legal talents and fight for truth and justice. Three years of wading through law books the size of phone directories and a year of carrying files and briefs (the legal kinds, I mean) for my senior, my day had finally come!!
My senior, a criminal lawyer had finally decided to let me argue a case before the court and here I was in my brand new black suit (which my friends claim makes me look a mix between an undertaker and a usher at some fancy restaurant, but that’s another topic altogether), my unruly hair gelled in place and a look of supreme confidence on face. We were representing a businessman who had been handed a bad check by a crafty gentleman and the businessman had decided to take recourse to the law, which is where Atticus Finch Jr (yours truly) came in the picture. So when the case number is called out in the court of a local magistrate, I get up and give a little tug at the lapels of my suit rather pompously before starting my argument (had seen some butt-kicking lawyer do this in some movie).
“Your Honour….this is a perfect case of the accused trying to circumvent his liability to pay….” this is where the magistrate, a very genial looking chap till now stops me with a glare. “He is trying to what???” he demands with a wrathful bark. “Uh…uh…sir…he...Uh,” I stutter like a retard, completely deflated by now. A few old-timer lawyers, who probably spent their lives in that courtroom discussing cricket scores with the magistrate during uneventful days, snigger at my back. “He is trying to circumvent his liability to pay, sir,” I venture ahead manfully, trying to salvage whatever confidence I had worked up before this shameful interruption. Now the distinguished jurist looks ready to throw the gavel at my gelled head. “Circ…Circle….what was that u said?” he wants to know now. For my part, I just want to crawl into a big hole and bury myself. “Your Honour, may I request for an adjournment? I am afraid this case is too complex for me to argue and my senior is not well today. He would surely appear in court on a given next date and argue the matter out,” I say quickly, a voice in my head screaming at me to take evasive action.
With an affirmative grunt, which also communicates his thoughts that he thinks of me as a cretin with diminished mental capacities, he flicks his pen on a file before me and allows me to go to lick my wounds.
And that was when I learnt my first lesson as a lawyer-“Never use pompous legal jargon while appearing before a local magistrate…they get irritated no end and then decide to make an example out of the ‘yuppie’ by humiliating him”
My senior, a criminal lawyer had finally decided to let me argue a case before the court and here I was in my brand new black suit (which my friends claim makes me look a mix between an undertaker and a usher at some fancy restaurant, but that’s another topic altogether), my unruly hair gelled in place and a look of supreme confidence on face. We were representing a businessman who had been handed a bad check by a crafty gentleman and the businessman had decided to take recourse to the law, which is where Atticus Finch Jr (yours truly) came in the picture. So when the case number is called out in the court of a local magistrate, I get up and give a little tug at the lapels of my suit rather pompously before starting my argument (had seen some butt-kicking lawyer do this in some movie).
“Your Honour….this is a perfect case of the accused trying to circumvent his liability to pay….” this is where the magistrate, a very genial looking chap till now stops me with a glare. “He is trying to what???” he demands with a wrathful bark. “Uh…uh…sir…he...Uh,” I stutter like a retard, completely deflated by now. A few old-timer lawyers, who probably spent their lives in that courtroom discussing cricket scores with the magistrate during uneventful days, snigger at my back. “He is trying to circumvent his liability to pay, sir,” I venture ahead manfully, trying to salvage whatever confidence I had worked up before this shameful interruption. Now the distinguished jurist looks ready to throw the gavel at my gelled head. “Circ…Circle….what was that u said?” he wants to know now. For my part, I just want to crawl into a big hole and bury myself. “Your Honour, may I request for an adjournment? I am afraid this case is too complex for me to argue and my senior is not well today. He would surely appear in court on a given next date and argue the matter out,” I say quickly, a voice in my head screaming at me to take evasive action.
With an affirmative grunt, which also communicates his thoughts that he thinks of me as a cretin with diminished mental capacities, he flicks his pen on a file before me and allows me to go to lick my wounds.
And that was when I learnt my first lesson as a lawyer-“Never use pompous legal jargon while appearing before a local magistrate…they get irritated no end and then decide to make an example out of the ‘yuppie’ by humiliating him”
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