My Nemesis
The first time I represented my college for a moot court competition was at Kerala Law Academy. It is the best National Level Moot Court Competition in the country. The problem is usually with respect to violation of Fundamental Rights. It being my first time at a competition out of the college I was obviously a little apprehensive. I'd finally know if I could actually moot and place my arguments before a panel of judges. In college the judges for our competitions are lecturers, and they don't make me nervous, so when I moot in front of them there is no lacking in my confidence. We reached Perurkada and were escorted to the girls hostel, that's where we were to stay for the duration of the competition. In the afternoon we were to go register our team and we would be given our team code. On our way to the registration counter we passed by the other teams and they looked nervous and were trying to do their best to hide it. When i'm nervous I don't really absorb whats around me, I go straight to the place where i'm expected and I don't even look left or right or look at anybody. I'm not concerned about the other teams, in that moment I can only think about myself and assess my preparation. But my co-mooter and researcher were the opposite, our researcher was an optimist and she believed that nothing could go wrong and my co-mooter, well she voiced out everything I was feeling. We registered and returned to our room and started practicing. Our researcher had decided to do a wee bit of investigation and she came back to announce that all the national colleges had registered. THAT definitely freaked me out. Us non-national school students are programmed to have an inferiority complex. After taking deep breaths we decided that we couldn't take this lightly and began with more conviction and lesser confidence.(Does that make sense?)
At 4:00 pm we were asked to assemble at the auditorium where we'd be told whom we'd be facing in the prelims. The prelims were not knock out rounds, only top 8 scorers would make it to the quarter finals and there were 42 teams. So our opponents didn't matter. We HAD to give it our best shot. Once we got to know who our opponents were, we introduced ourselves, exchanged fake smiles and then retired to our rooms. We practiced all night, prepared for all possible questions and in the morning we were ready to face the competition.We were the respondents and I was the first speaker in our team. When the appellants began with their arguments I knew if it were a knockout round it would have been eeeeeeeeeasy for us to win. As that was not the case, we had raise the bar so high, that we'd undoubtedly be given scores way beyond our opponents. With that in mind I began my arguments and when I was done my co-mooter took over. We were done with the prelims but the results hadn't been declared. We had to wait for all 21 rounds to end. Finally the result board was brought out, my friend and I looked at the score chart, at 25 was NLSIU, so my friend and I started looking for our college from No.26 onward, 26,27,28.....42 and we weren't there! so we looked from 20-24, we still weren't there.With hearts beating faster we looked from 10-19, and we still weren't there, we decided we'd count down. We weren't at 10, we weren't at 9, 8- across it was our college name! Oh the joy of seeing us in top 8! We weren't even given a second to revel in our moment. We were being called for the quarters. We ran to the court hall. We were again the respondents and this time were facing ILS, Pune. The names of the judges presiding hadn't yet been put up, but when it was, the girl from ILS broke down. She started crying as if she had caught the plague. The name that caused this commotion was "David Ambrose". I looked at our researcher and she said the guy wasn't worth worrying about. That was good enough for me, I believed my researcher. I thought the girl crying was just being dramatic and trying to psych us. When the judges arrived and the session began..... gosh the questions were like darts the mooters the target and Ambrose kept hitting bulls-eye and bled the mooters. When it was my turn, my legs were trembling, no amount of water could help my dry throat, when I began I was being pelted with boulders I was near tears, the girl wasn't play acting, this man was terror! Then came a point when I looked helplessly at my researcher with tears in my eyes. I would have run away, that would have been easier on my ego than what happened next, the first mooter usually ends their arguments saying, " If the court is convinced with the counsel's arguments, the remaining issues will be dealt by my co-counsel" I wish I hadn't uttered these words. Phat! Right on my face Ambrose said,"Not convinced" .(My only consolation- the ILS team's first speaker also was insulted in the same manner) That was my first time ever facing Ambrose. When he left the court hall all girls left crying, people saw us and knew which court room we were in. No explanations were asked and we didn't have any expectations.As was the case both our teams did not make it to the semi's. No surprises there.
At this competition I experienced mooting in its true form.
At 4:00 pm we were asked to assemble at the auditorium where we'd be told whom we'd be facing in the prelims. The prelims were not knock out rounds, only top 8 scorers would make it to the quarter finals and there were 42 teams. So our opponents didn't matter. We HAD to give it our best shot. Once we got to know who our opponents were, we introduced ourselves, exchanged fake smiles and then retired to our rooms. We practiced all night, prepared for all possible questions and in the morning we were ready to face the competition.We were the respondents and I was the first speaker in our team. When the appellants began with their arguments I knew if it were a knockout round it would have been eeeeeeeeeasy for us to win. As that was not the case, we had raise the bar so high, that we'd undoubtedly be given scores way beyond our opponents. With that in mind I began my arguments and when I was done my co-mooter took over. We were done with the prelims but the results hadn't been declared. We had to wait for all 21 rounds to end. Finally the result board was brought out, my friend and I looked at the score chart, at 25 was NLSIU, so my friend and I started looking for our college from No.26 onward, 26,27,28.....42 and we weren't there! so we looked from 20-24, we still weren't there.With hearts beating faster we looked from 10-19, and we still weren't there, we decided we'd count down. We weren't at 10, we weren't at 9, 8- across it was our college name! Oh the joy of seeing us in top 8! We weren't even given a second to revel in our moment. We were being called for the quarters. We ran to the court hall. We were again the respondents and this time were facing ILS, Pune. The names of the judges presiding hadn't yet been put up, but when it was, the girl from ILS broke down. She started crying as if she had caught the plague. The name that caused this commotion was "David Ambrose". I looked at our researcher and she said the guy wasn't worth worrying about. That was good enough for me, I believed my researcher. I thought the girl crying was just being dramatic and trying to psych us. When the judges arrived and the session began..... gosh the questions were like darts the mooters the target and Ambrose kept hitting bulls-eye and bled the mooters. When it was my turn, my legs were trembling, no amount of water could help my dry throat, when I began I was being pelted with boulders I was near tears, the girl wasn't play acting, this man was terror! Then came a point when I looked helplessly at my researcher with tears in my eyes. I would have run away, that would have been easier on my ego than what happened next, the first mooter usually ends their arguments saying, " If the court is convinced with the counsel's arguments, the remaining issues will be dealt by my co-counsel" I wish I hadn't uttered these words. Phat! Right on my face Ambrose said,"Not convinced" .(My only consolation- the ILS team's first speaker also was insulted in the same manner) That was my first time ever facing Ambrose. When he left the court hall all girls left crying, people saw us and knew which court room we were in. No explanations were asked and we didn't have any expectations.As was the case both our teams did not make it to the semi's. No surprises there.
At this competition I experienced mooting in its true form.
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