Morning namaaz

Pulling a laaaatttee nighter for crim law end term today. Highlight- apart from the almost rat-invasion, hearing the morning namaaz. Its funny how there always seems to be a mosque around, no matter where I am putting my head to rest. I like the sound. Its soothing, transportational and somewhat hypnotic.

My grandparents house in Hyderabad, we used to have a baby mosque right in front. (Also a mental hospital and tuberculosis facility down the street. Funky locality.) As the house grew older and changed colours (it is currently a VIRULENT shade of blue) the mosque grew, until it turned into a huge structure with loudspeakers almost edging into our windows.

So when the family gathered, there'd be a clamour to secure rooms farthest from the source of omg-isitfouralready-butiwantto-SLEEP!


Must get back to chargesheets.

PS- hols in two days!

Moo-jic

Country makes me feel- happy, sunny, sad
Metal- takes care of any anger i'm feeling
emo- the above, plus if i feel like being morose, the best.
classic rock- for all occasions
classical- hmmmm, difficult to classify. a lot to do with memories for me.
indie- just regular
blues- oddly, rarely for when i actually have the blues. more for a bit of that rhythm and mellow, relaxed mood i cant find words to describe. well words other than those :P

Music. What would I do without it. It would put most therapists to shame.

Aliyah

I really felt like playing this morning. I don't do that a lot in law school. I think this was the fifth time in two years that I actually dusted her off and played. It feels good. I'm now looking for help reading tabs.

Songs I want to play so far
a)Morning yearning by Ben Harper
b) The Sky is falling by Sajid Akbar

Aliyah. I love that name. Close contender- Abla, meaning full bodied. But Aliyah just sounds so much better. It means sky, heaven some shit like that. What the hell, form over substance any day :P


I think i'm deviating from the mandate I'd set for my blog when I started off. But I think I'll settle for whatever I feel like writing, cause atleast I'll be writing.

PPS (for those of you who have not read Daddy-Long-Legs, PLEASE do) I think Aliyah and I are going to be very happy together! :D

My first angsty law school post

Its about time, eh?

I was a big deal in school, and it wasnt a small school, so you cant give me the big fish in a small pond thing. And now, I'm far from studly. I study my butt off, but am not smart about the way I work. So I don't do well. It sucks. I can't tell you how much.

Essentially, law school isn't working out so well for me. I'm not the person people tally scores with, cause I'm a middle feeder. I don't know how people see me, but I'm willing to bet they don't think I'm the smartest or most hard working person around, even though I am both smart and hard working.

But you know what? It doesn't matter. For one, it can't. If it did, I'd never be happy. And law school isn't worth my happiness. No grades, competitions, or external sources of validation are worth my happiness.

And why should they be? Do professors here, or class mates or college mates know me better or do I? Obviously, the latter.

Besides, in three more years, I know I'm going to get what I want.

Another thing. Relationships here, so transient. Just when you think you've finally found someone you can rely on, off they go. And it happens with such a frequency that I think people even stop fighting it. They just let you drift away, and you do the same.

My best friend and I sometimes draw up lists of people that we actually trust and count as true friends. The list never goes beyond 5 or 6. But hey, who needs a whole entourage?

The lesson that I've learnt is that external means of self validation are all very well. I was the kid that wanted to win, I still am. I like achieving, I like putting up good performances, I like praise. But the absence of the above isn't going to make me feel like shit, cause that'd just be stupid.

I am, and will always be studly :D

Awesome lassi and Assorted Delhi-isms

Went to the most awesome Lajpat nagar market to help dad with some shopping. Found that this market, like Karol Bagh, is dominated by sardars and punjabi paraphernalia. The best by product of this dominance is the most AMAZING lassi I've gulped down in too long a while. So creamy. Just the right amount of sweet. Huge, sweating steel glass, the only way to have lassi, in my opinion. So frothy. Mmmm.

Also, very decent kachori. And paneer bread pakora, for the adventurous. The bread pakora really anchored my stomach, but the chutney was beyond brilliant.

Sigh. Contemtment, thy name be small halwai ki dukan. (If you want to find this shop and try the lassi, which is something I very strongly recommend, just sniff the air a few metres off the main entrance to the market. The shop will reveal itself to you. There are two. I went to the one more tucked inside.)

On a different note, by jove I heart dilli. Kya style hai baap, logon ka. They're aggressive, but aaaa how they talk. Feel aati hai, tagdi waali. How they sell. And the city! Wide roads, awesome street food (BUNTAAAA! Tandoori momos!), monuments alongside flyovers (which is probably not so good for the monuments), a decent amount of greenery, sarojni... sigh.

Been a long time

Apparently I last posted on april 29th. Shame on me. So many things to write about.
the contempt of court law in this country
"meat-ing"
the joy of watching corny movies
how great it feels that the sister, the mater, pater and I are in the same house for a coupla days
how scary credit cards can be
discovering Delhi
souffle! not the dessert, karan's dog- souffle

So. I didnt know this, but apparently, the contempt of courts Act allows proceedings to be intiated in a number of situations, one of which is... drum roll... SCANDALIZING the court. Im sorry, what? So if I flash you, or am drunk around you, or dont double over enough, you get to intiate proceedings against me?

I intend to write a more.. ahem, academic piece about this, but basically, I think it serves the end of the Act to limit liability for "obstruction of justice". Maybe then we wont have judges giving railway officials hell for denying them first class tickets on the ground that it lowers the majesty of the court, and therefore amounts to contempt.

Its not the colonial era anymore. Remember?

PS- had a lonnng discussion with a fellow law schoolite about this, but would like your views, and the question is not about the magazine, or literal. To quote fellow law schoolite, its about the socio-cultural construct of male v. female sexuality. The question is- what is the female equivalent of a playboy? Slut?

More on the big G

I mean god, y'all.

God = optimism. Optimism = god. Things are a blessing if you chose to seem them that way. My extended two weeks of internship in Bangalore are a blessing in diguise, cause I'll get access to the library when its empty and I don't have to come up with devious schemes to get photocopies.

Amen.

Post script- forced sis to accompany me to a shopping trip today. Score! (it is almost impossible to get the young 'un to go shopping with me. I'm usually painfully, exasperatingly indecisive) Also, hashmi for 35 bucks. Lutera man in Bombay sold to me for Rs. 120 Argh. No mrp on the package. Hm.