GLC!

It takes time to sink in that I was part of an institution that is almost half as old as a turtle! Certainly, the carefully preserved dust in the annex library and the fans that hold office at pleasure, compel you to believe that it is much older. It’s age remains a mystery for someone who’s been a student of it while it celebrated its 150 years for three years in a row! But that doesn’t take away the similarity that the Government Law College has with James Bond- both are names taken with reverence by those in the profession! Of course, for the layman, as Chintan discovered one day while he was hiring a cab, it is a “sarkari kaalej”! For us, it has and will remain, GLC, unless someone asks with a puzzled expression, “huh?” and we would unwillingly unmask the trendy name to reveal its association.

GLC is indeed, as all committee correspondences mention, a “distinguished institution with illustrious alumni”. Its non est campus, a fictitious gymkhana and the overflowing second floor notice board are but just a few of its distinguishing traits. Not to forget classrooms the size of a football stadium that are maintained untouched and in their erstwhile pristine condition by students religiously, barring exceptional circumstances like daswani, GP or pitha’s lecture. The form filling days are of course a fundamental change in circumstance when all hell breaks loose! The form enquires about details of your tenth standard even after you’ve got a BLS degree and just when you are reconciling with that fact you realize that the guy behind you has actually, er…notionally, been in your class for the past four years. Until the last academic year, when form filling days meant a 9-6 day, they were designed to instill patience and tactfulness- virtues that are the hallmark of a successful counsel. We now know the secret behind our alumni being so illustrious!

For someone who’d spent all her life pre-GLC in school, GLC was ironically, the college life! In keeping with its trend, it has a remarkably committe(e)d college life, for at least until the second year, and for those who refuse sanity, the whole of their life as a GLCite, one’s status is defined by the number and kind of committees they are a part of! Committees are self-proclaimed foundations of the GLC culture, the mascot that guided the life of most GLCites at least in their pre-law years of boredom. Typically, they are our TV9…seemingly sensational and exclusive until you realize that that’s balderdash! But in an institution that would’ve otherwise seen visiting students, committee’s have commendably done what the institution has, to my mind, utterly failed- to ensure that it has at least an iota of college life!

All said and done, life at GLC would remain incomplete if it were not for the excitement that MU provided. When I walked out after the banking paper, I promptly called my mom and declared that that was the last time I exited GLC as a student and then I quickly added, “hopefully…! One never knows with the MU”. Having been under the MU has had it’s own perils and advantages. For one, there will definitely be rumors of exams getting postponed and being a student, unless you are Nithya, the very thought of any postponement is great to begin with, although you’d wish it were not there once the exams begin. But then you have the ULC in land laws long after it’s been repealed and the redundant case laws in history of courts as part of our portion. The results of course are just that...the result, although ‘m yet to find, of what!

The note would remain inchoate if I don’t mention two things that I‘d always cherish GLC for, the mooting opportunities it offered and its library. I must admit ‘ve been lucky to have done moots with some of the best mooters GLC has and a huge thanks to all of them for having made each moot a memorable experience. The GLC library is perhaps the only place one can perhaps hang out! :P And I for one, have hung in there for quite a long time before exams...thanks to my patient study partner, sagar...whose calmness should be seen to be believed!

Thanks guys...mallika for being a lovely friend; prathamesh for being a nice bro; shreyas and dhvani for the lovely jessup experience; mandar for his il guidance; nithya and khush for the memorble stetson and life at glc and thereafter; mana for her unmistakable diplomacy and some really smart jokes; neo, aman, dhaval,shai, pulkit and adke for having made mag a fun experience, vikram and everybody else who's not been named for having been part of my GLC experience.