Life As I Know It

In our old house my room was on the ground floor. I used to leave the windows open in the evening for Fenny, she loves sitting on my bed and looking out of the window. One day after a really long afternoon nap I woke up to find a small black bundle at my feet. I thought it was Fenny, but then this black fur ball was really small. I switched on the lights and to my surprise, sleeping on my bed was a black kitten. I don’t really like cats all that much. I poked the bundle, the little thing looked at me mewed and curled back to sleep. I poked it again and again and then it finally got up and stretched and yawned then looked at me as if expecting an explanation for disturbing it. All this while Fenny my puppy was sitting on the other bed observing this new visitor. She didn’t bark or attack the cat, for which I was thankful. I picked the cat and it was so skinny and frail and the silly eyes did it all. Instead of throwing it out I let it sleep. When I went to check on it a little lat...

When in first year of law, 10 students from our college were sent to a leadership camp. The gist of the camping experience is that, the resource persons tried to break our ego, made us questions our goals, and we did get to do a few fun things too. We were made to walk the Burma Bridge, which was much easier than multi wire traversing. There was also a nice pond in the camping area and we were warned not to swim there. So the day we were kayaking, we were given a task, which we were to do on our kayaks. Our team was without oars so two members had to manoeuvre the kayak to its destination while two sat in it as passengers all this was to be done without us talking. For the first few minutes the whole exercise seemed to be going right and suddenly chaos broke loose. I had been eyeing the pond since we got to the camp. For this task we were made to wear the life jackets, which only made me uncomfortable. Taking advantage of the chaos I removed the safety jacket and started swimming. T...

This is in justification of my previous blog. As a part of our academic syllabus we have to read Krishna Iyer’s Biography. Having read it when I was in the 2 nd year, I cannot say he and his ideas impressed me. He’s considered to be one of the most prominent of judges who added a new dimension to PIL (Sunil Batra’s case). He has further in his book dedicated a whole chapter to Capital Punishment and every time I read that chapter I disagree with every line that has been written. He talks of criminality as a way of behavior, he attributes a person’s crimes to mental illness. Therefore he suggests that criminals must be treated like the ill in a hospital. He has done a lot for prison reforms and for prisoners in general. He is all for human rights and abhors Capital Punishment. He has suggested several means of curbing crime, the same old theories on punitive, retribution and preventive measures. India is a country with a varied assortment of people and an extensive set of sub-label...

My brother and I always buried any dead insect we found. The usual victims of calamities were ants. They would either be stepped on or sat on. For some unfortunate ants, their last memory would probably be of looking right into a big black pupil. Scrutinizing ants is a tough thing; you never see one alive if you are 3 years old while doing so. I’ve learnt that ants are always at the wrong place at the wrong time. They are lucky that there are plenty of them still around the world. So we took the dead ants to the “burial ground”, which was a little spot in our garden. We always wanted to “cremate” the ants. As we were both still really small, matchboxes were a Big No! No! Then one day my brother discovered the utilities of a magnifying glass. We carried our loot of dead ants to the terrace and gathered leaves and made a tiny pyre and then let the magnifying glass do its magic. Of course such happy moments never last long, what with parents stalking us like we were criminals!

A jar with some sand and lots of grass was my idea of an ideal set up to keep grasshoppers and ladybugs. Whenever I went out to the park I would look out for them and pick the ones I thought were the nicest and put them in the jar. I did this daily and soon I had a very colorful collection of ladybugs and a bunch of irate grasshoppers who always tried to escape. It failed to hit me that, maybe these hoppers didn’t like their new home. A few days later my mom advised me not to add more insects to the jar. So I stopped, only to notice on the very same day that there was a hopper in the jar that wasn’t moving. I removed it from the jar and inspected it closely, there was no movement and for once it wasn’t trying to escape. I carried my precious jar downstairs and set all the bugs free, and buried the dead one. I knew then that I needed to start with a much smaller pet and I saw this red ant climbing the wall. I picked it. I had been warned not to go near them. But really how pa...

Curiosity in kids is obvious and I was super curious as a kid. I liked catching bugs, insects and any creepy crawly creature. When I was 3 years old my interests in four legged and some eight-legged creatures was encouraged by my dad. My very first attempts at having a pet failed miserably. I had a fascination for lizards, and so I wanted one as a pet. Having decided that, I had to figure out how I would catch one. I didn’t think I had to consult anyone about trapping lizards so I decided to catch one my own way. So I ran after them, chased them, climbed the furniture trying to reach them but all failed. Then one day I saw this really fat happy looking lizard crawling on the floor and the next instant it was on my palm. Then it began its struggle, so I tried to get a grip on it and held it by the tail and the next thing I know the lizard’s tail was in my hand and the rest of it was escaping. The tail fluttered on my palm with what little life it had in it and then stopped. I didn’t t...

Two men. One a Pakistani terrorist, convicted in India for an attack on the Parliament and the other an Indian convicted in Pakistan for 4 bomblasts. Both have been sentenced with death. Mercy pleas have been forwarded to respective presidents. Afzal’s sentence has been stayed on the Indian front. Sarabjit on the Pakistani front had his death row extended for a month. One of the leading political party made a statement, “If Sarabjit hangs so shall Afzal.” Politicians! Do they really believe they have the right to make such a statement? (RIDICULOUS!!!!!) Both countries have convicted the accused, in their respective judicial proceedings. Both have been sentenced. Lets respect the decision and let it take its course. Today Sarabjit's family came forward stating that they won't plead for clemency, if it means trading Pakistani prisoners in India for Sarabjit. Hats off to his family.

Have you ever heard of people blessed with a “black thumb”? I am definitely blessed with a “black thumb”. The green thumb is a positive thing to have if you are into gardening, and if you have a black thumb it means you are pathetic when it comes to technology. Whenever I’ve handled any electronic gadget, it’s always conked within minutes of me using it. I had really thought it was just a phase that would pass. But no, the curse is back. My comp was royally attacked by a virus and I slipped into the “oh no not again” mode. But then my friends (what would I do without them!) told me that a comp getting a virus is a common thing and that it was nothing to worry about. So my friend and I (mostly my friend… okay my friend did it all!) reinstalled windows xp and all other things on my comp and we said bye bye to the virus. Next day when my brother switched on the comp, we had a happy virus (Surabaya) waiting to welcome us. Its like, the forces are working against me. Just when I need m...