Retrospection

(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 14^th 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 15^th 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.