Falls Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

A Review of a Zambian Safari to the Victoria Falls

March is at the height of the rainy season in Zambia. It is also the green season again – water and green everywhere. This morning is special and we are ready to go!

We live in Chingola on the Zambian Copperbelt. It’s about 400 kilometers north of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. My wife, Molly and I had decided that I take a few days off from work. I work as a geologist for one of the mining companies. So you guessed right, rocks and minerals are my business! But so is the Victoria Falls. Did I mention that it was our destination for that day’s ‘trip’?

Livingstone is home to the awe-inspiring, mystic…Victoria Falls. It is over 500 kilometers south of Lusaka. Now you know why we had to brace ourselves for this ‘small trip,’ a trip covering some 1000 kilometers – a great driving test for a day! The look of the morning suggests fine weather, but as usual afternoon rains were expected. You learn to predict such with age, you know : – )!

It is 6:00hrs in the morning and we are packed ready to go. The children, there are four nice guys we wouldn’t like to be without, are hovering around. The youngest Martha says, “See the falls for us too and come back home safely.” They had to remain because they were going to school later that morning.

I threw the hold all bag in the boot of our family car. It’s a Toyota Chaser, a saloon car still good on its wheels. It still drives effortlessly on asphalt roads and that was our type of road all the way; from Chingola to Livingstone. Literally cutting Zambia in half. See the butterfly-shaped map of our magic country Zambia.

Kitwe Zambia’s Second City

We were on our way…and stealing from a Chinese saying “a journey of thousand miles starts with one step”. Just about thirty minutes later we arrived in Kitwe. This is the first town outside Chingola. It is the hub of the mining activities in Zambia and the town is centrally located on the Copperbelt. Its ‘wealth’ comes from the four surrounding mining towns of Chililabombwe, Chingola, Mufulira and Luanshya.

Kitwe has a small central business district surrounded by residential areas. There are a few tall buildings within the business district. But business is growing and is now encroaching onto the nearby suburbs. Fancy offices are coming in the suburbs. You know, they pull down homes to replace them with office blocks.

Kitwe is a small cosmopolitan city, sort of busy, people crisscrossing, shopping and some with all sorts of wares for sale. Hawker traders are everywhere. It’s like everyone is selling some thing and everybody is buying …incredible! The central business district is small, just a couple of blocks or so and we were on the other side of the town center.

Ndola, the Friendly City

We left the town behind as we drove on. Another thirty minutes later we arrived at Ndola, the capital of the Copperbelt Province. Dubbed the friendly city of the Copperbelt. Ndola was built as a commercial and distribution center. You can still see the impressions of its former glory when times were good. It has suffered the fate of the former regime’s economic experiments! The manufacturing companies either shut down or migrated elsewhere. A most hurried privatization took its toll here!

The central business district of Ndola is much larger and more spacious. The roads are wide and clean. The shops are many and you see a lot of people and cars everywhere. Lots of tall buildings too! In the old days the beauty was complete. There was a lake on the river that bordered the town center in the south. It separated the town from the southern suburb of Itawa. The International airport of the Copperbelt is beyond Itawa. Planes land here straight from Jo’burg (South Africa), Lubumbashi (D R Congo) and East Africa. It was built before the International Airport in Lusaka.

The little lake in Ndola has a history. It used to be large and serene. Quite a beauty really. Now only a boating club still exists but the water spots, which used to be the usual weekend activity, are gone. Now you see people in a dugout canoe fishing illegally.

What brought about this sad story? “One bright” fellow brought from abroad a water lily, a water hyacinth we called Kariba grass. It attacked the lake and nearly chocked it into extinction.

So there is no boating, no water spots, nothing! Just a small dam in the center of what was the lake. The municipality is busy fighting the wed, claiming back the lake. The lake is slowly coming back growing. It appears great times are coming ahead, I hope?

Kapiri-Mposhi

We are back on the road and over an hour later we made it to Kapiri-Mposhi. This is the only town in Zambia with a hyphenated name. Kapiri as it is normally called is a small town but on a rail and crossroad. It must grow to meet the challenges of crossroad settlements. It is here where the Chinese great railway to Dar-es-Salaam begins.

The Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) railway connects Zambia to the east coast of Africa in Tanzania. Using Chinese technology the hills were cut and the valleys were buried during construction of the railway line. Over a thousand such engineering fits are found on its 3,000 plus kilometre length to East Africa.

Kapiri is a gateway to East Africa. If you feel adventurous you can drive to the northeastern of Zambia. Then cross Tanzania to Dar-es-Salaam on the east coat of Africa. I have done this trip once and driving just over a thousand kilometers to the border was my frequent pastime in my earlier life. But that is another story!

We did not stop at Kapiri but drove through the small but growing shopping center.

Kabwe, the First Mining Town

Forty minutes or so later, hello Kabwe. I think the Bemba speaking people will not object if I say the name means ‘small rock’. Kabwe has a great history. It was once called Broken Hill. Yes you can guess it, the famous Broken Hill Man, a skull of our recent ancestors (homo rhodensiensis) – we as human beings are homo sepiens. This skull is now resident in a UK museum. The Broken Hill Man skull was discovered at the start of mining operations.

Kabwe is the first mining town in Zambia. There’s a billboard saying just that at the entrance of the town. The mining operations ceased in 1994 but Kabwe did not become a ghost town.

Help came from the fact that it lies on the Great North Road that joins Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city and the Copperbelt in the north. Farming has taken root here. The central business district continues to be a hive of activity. It’s rather a sprawling town center, spacious and lots of room. The largest textile manufacturing company in Zambia is found in Kabwe. It is an example of Chino-Zambia government partnership.

Lusaka, the Capital City

We were back on the road and after one and a half hours of driving brought us into Lusaka. Hello Capital …and the traffic is just dissipating after the morning rush hour. Its 10:00hrs two hours after the factory and office workers had managed to sneak into their work places! (I wouldn’t want them to hear me say that).

Lusaka was once described the fastest growing city in Sub-Sahara Africa. In 1964, at independence from Great Britain, Zambia was born with a ‘silver spoon in its mouth’, or should I say a copper spoon? With the excitement in the air and pride boosting the egos Zambians were a happy lot. The neighbouring countries to the south were all still under colonial rule. The economy was booming buildings were going up everywhere. The government was building schools; in fact a school in every district and a hospital too! Education was free. The times were great. Voila! Wake up Zambia!

The country has fallen on bad luck. Poor policies, high oil prices, etc did get paid to that. Now it’s a struggle for Zambians BUT there are signs that better times are yet to come.

However Cairo road is still a great major street. Beautiful skyscrapers cover the horizons. Shops are in every building. And the people… they’re everywhere. Lusaka’s population is two million people and that’s 20 percent of Zambia’s population… all in one city. Like every great cosmopolitan city in Africa you will find anything you want. The street venders are everywhere selling all kinds of goodies and nice ones too!

When you look at the cars on the main streets of Lusaka no one would blame you if you momentarily thought you were in Japan. Japanese cars are everywhere. And most are brandy new too! Cars from South Africa, the UK, Germany, and France are all found here. New buildings are popping up everywhere and in sundry places as if space is in short supply. Is this country poor, you might ask.

Sorry I digressed… We decided to surprise Molly’s cousin at her home. Well, perhaps I should say we were more interested on the homemade breakfast? Remember we started off without it that morning. After some greetings and enquiries about her children who were then at school and her husband who was busy at work, they were at each other! Chatting and hooting happily like schoolgirls – who ever said schoolgirls do that, I wonder?

Suddenly it was lunchtime and a quick light lunch was served. But we decided to leave before the family was back. We didn’t want a further delay that would result if the family arrived while we were still at their home. Remember the Victoria Falls was still further than the distance we had already covered from Chingola.

Oh, before I forget. Looking back we probably drove through rains twice or three times. You stop to count rainfalls when it’s a daily occurrence. I never seem to stop enjoying this though! Windows closed, a touch of heat from the car AC, my favourite music on – this time it was an African beat by Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe. The sound of the raindrops and the swishing sound of tires on the wet asphalt road, occasional cars and trucks going the other way! Just imagine that feeling, the sense of security against the elements of the weather – rain and wind as you drive past. Unfortunately driving in the rain gives Molly some discomfort. Poor her! She couldn’t enjoy that great pleasant feeling!

Kafue

Kafue is like a dormitory town being a mere 35 kms south of Lusaka. That was our next town but it took about thirty minutes – what with the heavy traffic and a few turns on the hilly road. The turns are great for those with a dare devil attitude. Imagine, you’re driving down the hillside and then up the slope… and suddenly a speeding truck shoots out of a bend! But I kind of enjoy that. The excitement of danger, you know!

Kafue is a stone throw away from the banks of Kafue River from which the town derived its name. The Kafue River comes out of the Kafue Flats as it meanders on its way down stream. The Kafue Flats are home to Lochinvar National Park, a bird sanctuary situated up stream of the river within the flats. More than 741 bird species have been recorded in Lochinvar and the counting continues! Birders, this is your paradise.

Outside Kafue we cross the bridge over the river. There is a new bridge now. The former bridge was a “transplant” from the UK, a present from the British Overseas Office. Its stay lasted nearly a century on this site. After its usefulness was gone the bridge was replaced with a brand new one – a Japanese technology! And that’s what we drove on.

Mazabuka, the “Sweetest Town”

Hello Mazabuka! The town is nicknamed the “sweetest town” in Zambia due to the sugar cane and the sugar factory. Zambia Sugar Plc owned by the Ilovu Sugar Group has a sugar cane plantation. It’s situated a few kms outside the town on the Kafue Flats.

In it’s meandering the Kafue gets very close to Mazabuka.

Zambia Sugar produces more sugar than the country’s local demand. The surplus ends up filling part of the African quarter on the market of the European Union. Opportunities are great in Zambia. Just recently another sugar company has sprung up on the other side of the Kafue, outside Lusaka.

Mazabuka is now experiencing a lot of activities. The town is growing steadily, perhaps, the ‘sweetness’ is attracting all and sundry. But then Mazabuka is right on the Great North Road in the farming block of Southern Province, once called the maize belt. Large quantities of maize grain used to be grown around here in the 1960’s and 70’s. Not any more, at least not as much!

We are on our way again. This time we were heading for Monze, a small town on the highway. We drove past it without stopping except to slow down a little to avoid the wrath of the traffic police. They “pitched a tent”, I mean, put up a road block to check for car road fitness, driving licences and road tax. So we had to pretend that we were driving below the maximum speed limit through a built up area.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that the traffic police are the same everywhere. They’ll delay you unnecessarily. When they stop you just watch them walking towards you slowly and majestically, like they own the world. You get filled with chagrin as you see the minutes tick by. What a torture they’re!

Back on the road and another trading center, a really small town flicks by. We don’t bother to stop because our target the Victoria Falls is still way too far ahead.

Choma

It is now Choma town. Once again right on the highway. The traffic is light at this time of the day. So driving is a pleasure. We stopped for some refreshment. Nothing beats a little stretching after seating in the car for so long like we had endured. Choma is another town I love so much. This love emanates from those old university days as a student on a field excursion – you know, learning rocks and all, geology again!

During my student days and on two occasions we ventured into the Zambezi Rift Valley, south of here, to have a look at a coal deposit and how it was being mined. You know, coal formed under intense heat due to a huge covering layer of rock deposited many millions years ago. Coal is a cousin of black gold, ‘oil’, but unfortunately it doesn’t pull in as much cash. What a pity!

So I digressed again… Choma is a neat town with its main buildings and shops all on the throughway. We took some drinks and a little rest at a popular stop for buses and motorist. And we had to leave. This was only just about half way to Livingstone from Lusaka.

As we leave town it’s raining again and I m pleased to note this. Molly is a ‘touch’ too unhappy. “This horrible rain is back again”, I can almost read her mind and audibly she remarked, “Won’t it ever stop raining?” Bad me I answered to spite her. ” You know, we need the rains, at least the farmers do”. I deliberately avoided looking at her but I could feel the mood. I knew what she thought. I was incorrigible just as the persistent rain itself.

Kalomo is another of those trading centers on the highway. A lot of farming activities in the surrounding area and shops to “siphon” the hard earned cash from the farmers. It’s a two-way thing really. Farmers are happy to buy goods after selling their crops. Again no stopping. We were now kind of tied. Only looking forward to a good night’s rest in Livingstone. Quickly we were past this small town.

Here is a beauty. There is a town, uncomfortably small though, named after me, yes me! Well, it’s only a coincidence. The town is called “Zimba” exactly spelled like my name is. So you see, how proud I feel about it. I actually pretend the town is named after “great” me. What a wish! Sadly our desperation was now heightened and we really wished we could just be up and we’re in Livingstone. But unfortunately we were only driving past my ‘beautiful little town.’

We were now on our last leg. We were driving again, the Toyota Chaser eating up the road with ease, heading to our destination …Livingstone…and the Mighty Victoria Falls!

Don’t forget that! 76 kilometres later and as the French say “Voila” we had arrived in Livingstone and safely too…

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Book Review – Amrita Suresh’s "When a Lawyer Falls in Love"

Amrita Suresh’s “When a Lawyer falls in Love” is an exquisite piece of hilarious fiction that reflects originality in experience, and truthfulness in expression, to unravel the intricacies that lie beneath human thought and action.

The writer seems to make capturous use of the layering technique, where-in the mind’s eye and maturity coincide with the layers of meaning to be expressed. On the visible layer, it is legal campus life, with law graduates-in-pairs are fixed in a ‘to be or not to be situation,’ with only one couple actually witnessing a real-life wedding, when Jaishree turns Jaishree Bose and ravishingly presents the charms of a Hindu married lady.

The writer quite graphically presents this “For the first time in her life perhaps, Jaishree Subramanian decided to openly assert herself in college. She came for the Farewell wearing sindoor and a mangalsutra. Even some of the guys in the class actually felt their jaws fall to the ground. Even some of the lecturers were shocked. Yet it was the final send off and Jaishree didn’t want to do any more hiding”.

The writer presents truthfully the concerns of man for woman’s love. Men as children are blessed by the comforts and warmth of the mother’s lap, and later in youth shown to be lost in gauging woman’s beauty, “Ankur remembered well, the first time his lawyer brain got enmeshed in Sonali’s freshly shampooed hair s she swayed with the gay abandon of a seventeen year old, during the Fresher’s party.”

A woman appears man’s sole concern for all generations to come. She becomes his breath and mind, the lone purpose in life, making life itself worth living. “She is actually the reason behind him actually maintaining a rank in class and not selling his law text books to a recycling unit, which Ankur every other day was tempted to do. Sonali Shah, in a word was his life”.

It is action that is celebrated over thought, with Souvik being declared a man of action and Jaishree garlanding him for a whole life ahead. Jaishree wants Souvik to take the first step, giving expression to the Indianness in an Indian lady allowing her to-be-partner to take the first step, inspite of being doubly sure of her boldness to do on her own. At the lake-side finally Jaishree gives Souvik the strength to spell out, before which he confirms

“Will you swim with me?” and then poses the question, a question that jittered the whole of man’s world, for the excitement or depression that follows, with her reply. Souvik pulls himself together, symbolically presented as “adjust his pants in an effort to kneel sit” and then Souvik quietly asks “the most beautiful girl in the world, will you marry me?”

If thesis is love at first sight, antithesis is coming close to one’s partner, but it is synthesis which as a marriage bonds couples for a life of joy and happiness. All the young legal couples, are shown rather anxiously graduating from thesis to antithesis and later to synthesis. If Jaishree and Souvik have been blessed to achieve synthesis, though “Ankur drove the nervous groom to his final”, Ankur is still to graduate, and the writer leaves it open for the readers to decide. Ankur, it appears still seems confused to choose between marriage as “Bossed over for the rest of his life” or “Sonali meanwhile, had different plans up her pretty sleeve. Having known her for over half a decade, Ankur have known.”

This indecision in Ankur is carved into Ankur’s words to Sonali “a woman’s love should never be trusted…since it has no empirical evidence to support it” and Sonali retorting “You ought to find yourself a guy then…” leaving “Ankur turn to be slightly ruffled” and this kit-pit appears to continue for long self-hurdling in escalation towards Synthesis. Indeed, the writer couldn’t have drawn a better comparison between the two young legal couples, Jaishrees and Sonalis.

The thesis of ‘graveyard’ love of Vyas, and his lover-girl Caroline’s desperation to reach out to him, rather begins with an ending note. The first chapter announces the death of love even before life actually took birth. This is rather humorously presented, with the criminology Professor Prakash questioning Vyas in the dark of the night “So you have already made plans of meeting in your after life.” He continues to faithfully laugh away at the youthful passion rather misplaced “I must say the stress levels of students has seeped through their heads. Imagine hanging out at a graveyard!”

The writer reflects on accepted belief, that life is full of suffering. As one grows older there is a realization of pain constant due to illness or disease. All make efforts at every age possible to be without pain, and to make fellow humans become free of pain. If we could choose to be without pain we certainly would. Souvik’s desperation to give relief to his ailing mother, through his marriage with Jayashree seems to be a cure from all illness that torments her.

By presenting Jaishree to Bose’s house-hold, Souvik considers giving it a new lease of life. He faithfully tries to return the care and happiness blessed on him by his mother all through. Jaishree for Souvik is the “Nibbanam paramam sukham”, meaning “Nirvana is the highest happiness” and Jaishree is sure to deliver this to her just kidney-transplanted mother-in-law. The announcement in the hospital “A match has been found” awakens Souvik to the realization that Jaishree’s coming to the hospital and later into his life will bring fresh rays of hope “Jaishree had come visiting for the fourth consecutive time.”

With her care and respect for elders Jaishree “touched the old man’s feet and vanished from the room” leaving Souvik to re-affirm himself of how much his mother needs Jaishree, with thoughts of “Jaishree was truly the sunshine of his life” occupying his mind, totally. Even before this, he firmly announces his wedlock with Jaishree, even if it meant upsetting his plans to go abroad. “Ma will approve of Jaishree…I know it.”

Astrology and obsession of common human lives to know what is in store for them in the future is very well captured all through the novel. The Leo Sonali sounds very assertive when she lectures her way through the importance of astrology. It really bugs her when Caroline rather sarcastically points out “it doesn’t make much sense, does it?…But how can one’s future depend on the movement of some star and moon and other such crap?” She starts “Astrology is based on bio-rhythmic cyles…Positive energy and Negative energy…has to come back to you.”

By saying that “everything depends on everything else” she confirms that it is focus that is really missing in many human lives, with every scope to create or negate one’s life, she says “the cosmic force has ordained, that if a person genuinely wants to make amends, circumstances are arranged to provide for evolution of the soul.” Change and diversion has to be met with consistency and focus.

Sonali wants Caroline-like beings to realize this fast, she says “The human body, as also the world, is in a constant state of flux. Therefore astrology in its truest form, involves going deep within through meditation, to uncover the answers that the soul already knows.” Finally there is a message for all “astrology is all about bringing out the best in a person. Since one’s future or career depends on doing something one is inherently good at. After all, most catastrophes are caused due to human failings.” This hints at the catastrophe of the love life of Caroline, to leave Vyas as cheated and wreaked, and also to lead a life in an alien land self-imprisoned in a self-imposed heartless marriage in times to come.

Astrology is also employed as an avenue to announce the ‘iceberg’ in us all. Caroline’s rather practical approach towards life, her deserting of Vyas for her Dubai cousin is very well prophesied through the medium of astrology. Sonali notes, “You can try doing some business of your own, working under someone won’t suit you…If you run a business it will be successful, since you have rather shrewd business skills.” Bringing the ‘profit motive’ into human lives and relationships is sure to make one materialistic and inhuman, finally to be isolated from people, near and dear, and Caroline is sure to meet her fate.

Sonali’s rather frustrated flirtation with Rohit, and his gross misbehavior, much to the anxiety and anger of helpless Ankur evokes neither laughter nor sorrow. The writer means to convey that, every individual is a slave of circumstances, which bury us many a time, before we are actually buried. It is not whether Sonali’s self-interests have served her internship, but what happens along the way is the causing of intense pain and anxiety in her undecided lover.

Starting from the day when “Sonali called Rohit to come sit next to her…For Ankur, the line between normal and abnormal had begun to blur. He could still be abnormally obsessed with feelings he had for the Sonali he once knew…A Paradox. That’s just what love was.” No doubt the middle classed Sonali might also have been carried away by the “farm house” charms of Rohit, where all play “Let’ play spin the bottle” game, prophesying Sonali’s life is sure to spin from Rohit to Ankur again.

The writer weaves the comic and hilarious intricately into the thick of the plot. Ankur questioning Vyas, as Vyas is busy searching for a gift amongst darkness ridden graves in the first chapter “What did she gift you…a space in this grave yard?” Pavan’s ambassador car which breaksdown at the slightest of movements appears to be a perpetual source of humour.

“The car groaning was under understandable, but the collective groans of the lawyers as they tumbled out of the car, was something that even the best mechanics couldn’t rectify.” Vyas’s annoyance on finding that Caroline has been moving closer to her cousin from Dubai evokes more humor than pity in the readers towards him.

On being advised to stop her from doing so, he complains his lost case “she says I am being stupid.” Legally Ankur is the most eligible bachelor to suit Sonali. But he is not sure of his singing abilities, rather humoursly he says “forget courtship, if he ever sang to his girl during their honeymoon, she’d make the lawyer himself draft divorce papers.”

Even little happenings and the fall-out can evoke laughter, this is what the writer aims to prove when Ankur’s teeth-focus is elaborated. Ankur “took good care of, it was teeth.

Infact as a six year old Ankur remembered holding a solemn burial ceremony each time he lost one of his milk teeth. A welcome party would follow, with the first traces of his new tooth. That’s why probably his teeth served him well, accentuating the smile on his chubby face.”

At the VJ hunt the comic is compounded by Ankur’s spontaneous replies triggered off by his “art of sounding intelligent while speaking nonsense.” For the female judge’s question “If you are invited for a pool party and you arrive wearing your swimming trunks only to realize it is a billiards game in progress, how would you react and why?” Ankur ventures further to erupt the party to cheers saying “I will pretend like it is my normal outfit… after all presence of mind is what counts the most in life.” The expected crowds’ cheers may be due to Ankur’s pool party outfit like mind, which exposes him dumb, or may be his outfitting to pose smart that ends in an expose of ignorance. Whatever, the end-result is rib-tickling laughter.

Pavan is a world apart. He is typically different from his fellow legal graduates. In one way he is ahead of the generations with whom he shares the same classroom. His humoruous narrative is sure to split all to laughter. “There was this one time when I was seated at a fancy restaurant next to a girl who ordered ‘fresh salted crabs,’ I was accompanying my dad for a business do and this girl was probably his boss’s daughter. Yet she was just so hot!! When her crab arrived, I thought I was being very smart when I said, “Wow! Even the crab still has his yes… probably he wanted to watch you all through dinner! That was it! The girl got delusional! She actually felt the crab was looking at her and probably that’s why she simply refused to look at both the crab and me…!!”

The man and woman relations in the Indian context are to be dominantly decided by the society. The young legal graduates naturally question this state of affairs. They look for an air of change, with Sonali laughingly says “After all a guy and girl alone on a terrace at dusk, is never a good sign!” The system of arranged marriage is debated “the most annoying thing about arranged marriages, thought Jaishree, everybody knew the precise reason for which everybody else was here, yet there was a forced facade of casualness.”

All through the novel, the writer’s concerns for trust in man-woman relations and for creation of a healthy and positive thinking in the tradition bound Indian society are expressive and evident. Before you convince your elders and society, convince yourself first. This is what the author seems to convey to the rather displaced-minded youth who wish to love, and marry the person of their choice. Many youngsters cannot do this, the resultant is failure in love and of marriage.

The secret to love’s marriage success is very well unraveled. If one partner fails, other should stand rescue by offering a helping hand, this is what sustains love, this is what sustains marriage, and this between couples is a blessing for children to have a happy and congenial home environment.

When Jayashree is confused about a marriage proposal, Souvik comes to her mental rescue says supportingly “Listen, I am not going to let them happen…you somehow put off the engagement for a year… we are getting married the first thing after college” that is it, she gets the focus, the inner strength to counter argue her father saying “Appa, I don’t want to get married now!” Finally the couples’ strength to stand together survives their relationship, and become one forever and ever. When your thought is right, you action is sure to yield the result.

Uniquely, this young writer presents the essential harmony of the mundane and metaphysical, by condemning all intellectual pride says, “Since those who make predictions, begin to believe they are celestial bodies themselves, given the amount of reverence they get. They forget that they are mere post men and that the letter has been drafted by the Highest Power there is. The very Power which has created the mosquito as also the mighty mountains.”

Amrita Suresh employs an idiom which is evidently expressive of her thoughts and beliefs. In addition to strict adherence with the common everyday expression of young legal graduates, she leaves no stone unturned in inventing altogether a new phraseology. This is clearly seen in the description of the Dean’s presentation, “IT’S LEGAL of course ‘kick start’ ed with a lengthy formal speech by the Dean, which the collective crowds wanted to ‘kick stop’…”

If the College Festival at AIU heralds the celebration of final year’s legal graduates’ college life, Bhoomika’s arrival brings in a wiff of fresh air, for the new graduates to start afresh as legal professionals. Bhoomika rather in a ridiculing tone of male’s ego says “A bulb is easy to fix… A male ego isn’t.” This leaves to the readers thought, that the legal graduates are sure to carry forward with unquestionable pride their irrational and age-old legal practices, giving no scope for creativity or modesty.

The writer sums-up the message even before eight chapters are still to be read, by saying “Ankur would be the best man. The legal and practical aspects that were tickling the lawyer’s conscience could be dealt with later.” The message is loud and clear. If life is an opportunity to better one’s self, indecision hurdles the process, overcoming which by focus and good efforts means happiness all the way.