(This article is a travelogue regarding
the writer’s first experience of an All India Law Festival held at Goa)
When the stars were in their sound sleep and when the phonetics of the
nature was in its low decibel, with shrill spirits and speculation, the
quadruple entrained, Poorna Express, carrying impedimenta and impetus of
winning. That night went off by hearing
the cadence of the wheels and listening to the resonance of the passing trains.
The next day’s auroral gleam woke up everybody from his or her insomniac forty
winks. After refreshing, the idea was to cease the appetite by having vada and
tea. We had it with a dubiousness of getting dysentery. Fortunately, we did not.
Finishing off the breakfast,
each of us took out their hefty law books and airy memorials and riffled
through the pages. We discussed, reasoned and referred but later preferred in
peeping through the shutters for seeing and seeking scenes of celadon mounds,
indigo Arabian Sea, rivers with ripples, viaduct
over valleys and protracted ebony tunnels. I felt the Konkan railway was
absolutely a marvelous milestone in the man’s path of progress and a paradigm
for the posterity to think about. In addition, I objectified that man from
nomadic being to neoteric being is so superb, supreme and sublime in his
imagination, invention and intellection.
Stations came and went where
we witnessed different faces and folks with their diverse culture, color and
custom which are still inscribed in my mind in the form off a collage. We
mingled with the co-passengers, chatted, confabulated and inquired regarding
‘The Destination Madgoan’. Eventually by 3 p.m., enduring the noonday humid, we reached the Madgoan
junction with a favor face and eager eyes. We searched for a board written
‘hotel’ for having our lunch and we found one nearby. After descrying the menu we thought that how
exorbitant was the existence in Goa. Finally, we fulfilled our hunger and
satisfied our self, not because the food was tasty but because of its extortionate
price.
Asking ‘what next’ among us
and as per the given instruction from our Giri Shanker sir, we contacted Sandya
lecturer and confirmed the distance and displacement from station to Salgocar
and expenses of food, traveling and lodging. Due to scorching room fares and
the tedious travel involved to reach Miramar,
the location of the law college, we decided to spend the night in the station
waiting room itself by submitting all the belongings in the cloak room. That eventide we left for a near by beach
named Coolva with zing and zest. The
shore was permeated with myriad rambling tourists, trivial vendors, quotidian
joggers, swimmers, divers and sporadic roving canines. The vesper sunset besieged with cadmium
orange welkin, arrhythmic billows, piscine piquant and all over spread shingles
and shells annexed the aesthetics. We took couple of photos and returned by 7p.m. and had our dinner from a near
by bistro. After that, all the four called to their respective homes and
whispered glad words and whereabouts. Finally, the day ended with sleepless
waiting room floor, acerbic bitten mosquitoes and obstreperous trains and
travelers.
On
14th crack of dawn, we got ready and reached hotel ‘Goa
International’ by first boarding taxi, then bus and finally catching another
taxi. That was tedious as already reckoned. There was a Salgocar law student
volunteer waiting who welcomed us and allotted a room numbered 112 in the
hotel. That evening we had our registration and an orientation camp at a hall
in the college where we got the instruction, advice and program schedule from
the coordinator and chairman Mr. M.R.K. Prasad. Each of the participants was
provided with a black file, a gel pen and an insignia mentioning the team code
which was mandatory to put on the chest. All the team were also given four
coupon books printed ‘break fast’, ‘lunch’, ‘tea’ and ‘dinner’ each which had
to be shown to the volunteer before entering the Casa De Jantar. The food was
palatable with spicy and savory smell. Everyone relished until the utmost
forgetting even his or her mother’s magic of culinary art and ambrosial aroma.
With the day before rehearsals
and rest, we four were all set on 15th for the inaugural function
and morning session of the moot court. We all preened for long time in front of
the cheval glass with the attire in stygian coat, lurid tie, sheen shoes and
well-groomed hairs before leaving the room.
At 9a.m., the inaugural function commenced with the
erudite and rhetorical harangue by the famous personalities on the rostrum.
Meanwhile there was a distribution of apricot colored rose flower to every
participant by the volunteers as a token of welcome. Finally, the function
terminated with a cluster photo session of all the participants along with the
glorified dignitaries.
By 10:30 a.m., all the mooters and researchers
marched to their allotted court halls. It was hall no: 6 for us. With smidgen
consternation and gargantuan confidence, we were perched and waited for the
judges. As the two judges came, we all bowed and then the game started. The
appellant i.e. the speakers of the Calcutta
university contended and asserted with oratorical wizardy. However, the
pronouncement of the scores by the judges favored us since we, the respondents
debated in exceptional fashion, displayed legal acumen, presented in flamboyant
vocalization, gave apt reply to the questions of judges and submitted case
laws. We were deluged with compliments and congratulations after that moot
which inspired our blood and brain, ultimately resulted in our ecstasy and
euphoria.
Much waited noon session with Symbiosis Law
College, Jodhpur was equally ignited with a bit of
fear, fire of excitement and encapsulating fumes of firm confidence. We argued
for the appellant side ferociously and fiercely convincing each and every ‘in
between question’ of the judges. Our adversary, the respondents with laptop on
the table, audacious audibility and maintaining cerebral coolness impressed the
two judges ensuing in supplementary score than us. They triumphed that moot
session but we won in learning from them a lot.
That sunset we all went to the
Miramar beach
in close proximity to the college. Like all beaches, it was also packed with
sightseer, copious footprints, nautical yacht and ships on sea and soaring waves
with wings. Anil and Anwar bathed and played in the deep cobalt and I just
watched them because I do not know swimming and I bear in my mind the words of
my mother, ‘shun approaching water, current and hiking mountains’. We clicked
photos in a range of poses for incarcerating reminiscences. We returned without
spending much time over there and planned to visit the Miramar beach every day late afternoon.
The next day we got ready for
legalese and quiz. Anwar and Anu attended for the quiz and the attempt was not
bad. Legal drafting followed it, for which Anwar and I appeared. The given case was related to a divorce;
hence, we drafted a plaint and submitted hoping good results. That afternoon the results were published for
the quiz in the notice board, where among various colleges, G.L.C. Thrissur
also could not step the semifinals frontier. We went again that evening to the Miramar beach and enjoyed
the scene. Anwar’s watch was missing and we four searched in the sands of the
beach in the dim twilight’s light. Fortunately, we got it. Finally, in jubilant
spirit we came back cutting jokes and singing songs.
A little later, after we all
arrived from the beach, someone knocked the door. When opened, it was Mr.
Levin, a student of Salgocar
College, with his few
friends. They came to invite us to a
disco pub named ‘Paradiso’. They hinted
the rates per head and mentioned that it starts only by 2 a.m.
Hiring two Tata Sumo carrying total twenty-five in numbers, went in
frenzy and fervor to Mapusa, where the pub was.
The subterranean tavern was one-sided open to sea, illuminated with dim
fluorescent lights, plunked techno and precipice wall limned with cocoa, cerise
and chartreuse tinges. Spirituous
strangers, carafe of whisky, beer and brandy along with filled ashtrays on the
tables were the optic vista. Garbed in
parsimonious raiment, divulging lots of skin, the foreigners were dancing in
their erotic and exotic pace. We all danced to the boozy music until our minds
foundered into a phantasmal cosmos. At
last, we came back with jaded anatomy and wishing ‘goodnight’ to everyone.
The next cockcrow, in ‘what to
do and what not to do’ attitude I went
for the event ‘lend a lawyer’. There was
a video clipping of a conversation between a client and lawyer. The task was to
write the questions and solutions if I were a lawyer. I wrote the possible
questions but could not get adequate time to write up to my satisfaction.
Anyhow, I put a full stop and came back with surety that there was no price.
The same day Anil was having his crossword, which he attended with lots of
preparation and perseverance. He came back with a smile in his face as five or
six studied words came. Anu had her battlefront also the afternoon. She got the
topic ‘democracy’ to speak for and against. The presentation was O.K. The only
somber was that we could not taste the triumph in any event, however we learned
a lot and experienced in tons.
That night a plangent shindig
was organized only for the participants in a club called ‘Gesperdias’ under the
aegis of some boys of Salgoacar College near the Miramar beach. The breeze from
the beach suffixed the orgiastic buzz; the music mixed with friend’s
epigrammatic expression excited that brief moonless fourth dimension. Harkening
the syncopation and humming the lyrics, everyone tangoed to their own sleek and
stylish steps. Until 2 a.m.,
the party protracted already disturbing, night’s synchronization and nature’s
siesta.
The terminus day came when the
lions roared and brawled on which the judgments were heard. The final battle
was between National
Law School,
Bangalore and
Ambedkar College of Law, Chennai. Both the teams equipoise in caliber, content
and craving, argued and asserted in brilliant fashion with clobbering passion
smoldering inside them. Ultimately the tigers of the National law School, Bangalore came out as the
triumphant team and lifted the V.M. Salgoacar memorial-rolling trophy for moot
court 2004.
Following the moot court
final, the valedictory function started with scholarly speeches of the judges
and other officials. Then there was the distribution of awards to the winning
team for different events. All the members of the participating team were given
certificates and mementos. At the end there was a program named ‘Goa Vision’.
It included cultural programs, fashion shows, dance and music. Students from
different colleges exposed their talents. I was called to the stage by the
anchor for dancing since he saw me dancing well in the disco. I danced for the
song from the film ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’. Later many joined the dance on the stage.
Finally, the curtains were ringed down.
Same evening everyone with
elevated expectations and earnestness got ready for the river cruise. All the
participants went in a bus to the bank of the river and from there to the other
side by a boat where the cruise was waiting. Every one embarked the cruise and
climbed the stairs to the first floor. A musical troop performed item numbers
and in between few folk dances that were announced as the traditional Goan
dance. I danced on the stage, later all the boys and girls joined. The dance
continued for two hours and after that having food from down stairs we all got
down from the cruise. Took snaps of friends from there and came back to the
hotel in the same bus. It was midnight
when we reached the hotel. We were said to vacate the room by 9a.m.the next
day, there fore, we four packed our luggage the same night and went to sleep
with flaxen dreams combined with poignant thoughts about tomorrow’s leaving.
The last hours we were very
busy conveying the word of parting to all the friends. Even though laceration
was not in orbs, the mind was ululating on the sly. By saying a final adieu to
Goa International, Salgoacar
College and to Miramar, we returned
hoping to come the next year. By catching an auto rickshaw we went to Kadamba
bus stand and from there to Madgoan by bus traveling more than 35 K.M. Due to
heavy luggage we caught again another auto rickshaw to Madgoan railway station.
At the station, we met the Kottayam team girls and Kerala Law Academy boys. The former went in Mangla
Express, whereas the latter came with us in the same coach of the Netravathi
Express. With umpteen stories and memories, we came in the hastening train to
our home state ‘gods own country’.
Life is like a bracelet
composing of many diamonds where now I feel that the cherished memories and
moments of the Goan visit is one diamond devoid of which the bracelet is just
an abstraction. The journey was so mesmerizing and memorable that the
reminiscence has entrenched in my genes, cells and cerebrum.
