Law, Partially

It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times. Ten years ago, Christine and I met at a Mumbai train station but were nearly thwarted that same day by a pack of aggressive monkeys. Now we have a little monkey of our own.  I documented our initial encounter on this blog  without a thought of what lay ahead. The comments to that blog entry are pretty funny : you should read them; my mom was worried I'd catch Bubonic Plaque from the monkeys that were hounding me that day. What Christine most remembers from that day is that I planned to jump from a train speeding into a station but was ultimately thwarted by my own ill-conceived plan. (For more info, click  here .) Nonetheless, we celebrated this fateful milestone in London yesterday with Indian food for lunch and wine and cheese for dinner. At a restaurant with white table cloths near our temporary apartment, Bobby tried dal and chicken tikka masala -- he seemed to like them! This kid won't be eating fish sti...

As is apparent from some prior entries, I’ve become a wanderer. St. Louis, Columbia, Paris, New York, Michigan, Iowa, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Bombay, who knows where else will be next. I don’t like to let the grass grow under my feet. Running around the world is exciting, but part of me longs to stand still and settle in the Midwest. On the one hand, I’ve become real good at making friends – I mean, you always have to make new friends when you move to a new place. On the other hand, I have so many friends spread so far around, any of whom I may never see again. And in a few years I’ll leave these Pittsburgh friends behind too. I bought a book in Delhi written by the famous British explorer Sir Richard Burton – not the actor, but a man with a fascinating biography nonetheless ( link here - the first entry is not the same guy, but the rest are). Sir Richard was a wanderer in the first degree, exploring the entirety of India and Africa for the Queen. He also posed as a Muslim and snuck in...

This is a travel blog. Now I’m back in Pittsburgh. What I mean is, I am not traveling currently. So this blog is sort of on hiatus until I travel again and that travel experience is interesting enough to warrant blog entry. I do foresee a trip to New York City in October, and I also foresee a trip to the Seattle-Tacoma area around New Years. That trip would be to visit my good friend Josh, aka the MFG, an army man who just this summer began his station there. I sort of doubt much intellectual will happen there worthy of blogging. However, I’ll probably be going somewhere interesting next summer, but who knows where this place will be: London, Paris, Singapore, the afterlife. Namaste until then…

I don’t know if any Mariconians (as those who work for Marico fondly call themselves) will ever read this blog, but I’d like to throw a thank you their way. They gave me a desk, a computer, and a paycheck this summer to study whatever areas of Indian law fascinated me. I learned more than I expected to learn, not just about the whole of the Indian legal system, but some American law too. I exit India with a much greater love of the law than with which I entered India. And I wasn’t just learning Indian law, I was learning the entire Indian legal system as my Marico lawyer colleagues took me to the Bombay High Court, set me up with the senior advocate in Delhi (many thank yous also to Mr. Pratab – I hope to meet again someday) to set in on a session of the Indian Supreme Court, and all took time from their busy days to entertain my queries about Indian law and India. On my last day of work, knowing my fondness for that fat god with the elephant head who has a wife and rides a rat, my col...

To anybody who read the Indian portion of my blog and didn’t comment, thank you very much for reading. I didn’t think any of my law student comrades were reading because none were commenting. I was pleased and surprised to return to Pittsburgh and learn that a few had actually been following my mild adventures. I thought I had been forgotten about…

I’ve been back in the States for two weeks now. Some Indian reflections are in order. Consider this closure. I think I’ve done all the things in the States that I had been dreaming of all summer. I’m drinking red European wine and eating European cheese as I type. (American wine and cheese were also dreamed about, but it just so happens that I’m going European tonight.) These items are prohibitively expensive in India, but at Costco in the U.S., they’re just the right price. I ate Mexican food at El Maguey. I saw friends and family. I spoke English, and everyone understood. As I type this, I’m thinking, being back home sounds underwhelming, and actually it probably is. I have unfinished business, it feels, in India. Eleven weeks just wasn’t enough time. I was intimidated by India when I first arrived there. What shocked and scared me most at first was the madness of the streets. People were walking on highways. Also on highways there were roadside stalls set up. People didn’t stop at r...

This turned to be a pretty funny day, and I still shudder when I think how lucky I am I ended the day on a plane headed west. My last day in Bombay was Saturday. Friday night I stayed to work until 10:30pm trying to finish my work (especially since I had taken a 5 hour lunch break on Thursday with Christine). I even went in to work on Saturday morning, just to make sure my work was done enough. Actually, I have some significant portions to finish here in the States. I have no time for this, but I’ll make time. I was originally supposed to stay at Marico for another 4 weeks, back in those heady days where I thought I was traveling onward to Hong Kong from India. Had I stayed those 4 weeks, I would have finished more of my project. I am rather tired of Indian food, but just because I hadn’t eaten pav bahji very much and because it’s the last time I’ll have it in a while, I went to my office building’s cafeteria to get some pav bahji. Pav Bahji is a spicy tomato-based thick liquid eaten w...

These are the ruins of an ancient mosque south of Delhi called Qutab Minar. It was one of my favorite sites in India. It's built in an Afghan style, and this huge tower has Arabic script carved on parts of its surface -- but it's the background that's carved away, leaving the script to be protruding. I just liked the way this tower looked. It was in a different style than the tens of Mughal mausoleums (like the Taj) and forts I'd been visiting in Delhi and Agra. Qutab Minar is red, but there's not supposed to be such a pinkish tint in the bottom left. My camera is broken, and the accuracy of photos is erratic -- this is why I gave it to Amar. This is the Raj Ghat, the place where Gandhi was cremated in Delhi. I really liked this memorial. It's just a block of marble, and such a simple memorial seems fitting for the man. I also went to his house in Delhi. It's now a museum, and it was probably my favorite museum in India. This is Babalu, my driver in De...

Remember my shoe shine friend Amand? His name is actually Amar, I just misunderstood with his accent when first introduced. He’s tripled his earnings now that he shines shoes in a railway station with his shoe shine box. His mother and sister don’t have to beg anymore. Instead his mom goes to gossip with the other neighborhood ladies during the day – a common pastime for Indian women, as I guess it is for all women everywhere. My mom gave me some money to give to Amar, so I did, and Amar is so happy that he now calls me every day. I’m not kidding. He also says he’s going to go to the airport with me on Sunday even though my flight leaves at 5:55am. He and I spent Sunday at Juhu Beach. Juhu Beach is the most crowded beach I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s dirty, the sand is rocky, but it was good times, even though the heat from the sun (which is always directly overhead here – it’s not in the south like it is in the U.S.) made my skin red, white, blotchy, and itchy. Amar and I ate a spic...

My last two weeks were such a whirlwind, I won’t know what to make of them until I’m safely back in the States, which will be this Sunday night for those keeping track. I’ve largely finished my project at work. I detailed the legal aspects involved in regards to Marico’s commodity import portfolio. That sounds so jargoned. But Marico imports edible oils and oil seeds. I detailed where law comes into this technical process. I made a 7 page comparative study of Indian and U.S. intellectual property law. I’ve only briefly studied American IP (intellectual property) law, so really I was newly learning laws of two countries. I finished the project despite taking a five hour lunch break today, arriving at work yesterday at 2:30pm then leaving at 7, getting tipsy last night with my Sikh friend in Chembur, a suburb more distant than Bandra, and leaving work at 3pm on Tuesday. Why am I slacking at work? Because I am a man involved with many projects past my legal education. Disclaimer: I hope t...

It's a shame, but it's not surprising. A building in Mumbai has collapsed , killing 24. Most buildings here are junky looking, and then builders are corrupt and will put extra stories on them without making the necessary structural changes, so they can make extra money. I also would imagine that corruption prevents many buildings from receiving the rigorous safety inspections that American buildings get. But I wasn't in the collapsed building or anywhere near it, and although I am at work now, I'm pretty sure my apartment building is still standing.

My neighbor kind of looks like Gandhi. He's skinny, old, bald, and Indian. He usually wears loose fitting white pants and no shirt. He invited me in for breakfast and tea this morning. I'd already eaten breakfast, but I had some tea. It's my policy to nearly always accept invitations because you never know what may come of them, even though there is a chance that only awkwardness will come. This morning wasn't too awkward. My neighbor is called Aziz. He went to JJ Art School in Mumbai, which he says is the biggest art school in Mumbai. He said he'd worked many years as a graphic artist. The paintings lining his home looked like what I'll call Indian Impressionism -- bright colors, cloudy shapes, but with traditionally painted Indian people -- simplified facial features and bodies, big eyes. His children are in the U.S., and he lived in New Jersey for a number of years. He worked in a warehouse. It's hard to believe this because he showed me a picture of him ...

I sit writing in the lobby of the Taj Land’s End in Bandra. There’s a pianist playing a grand piano, and strolling through the lobby are mainly young and trendy, well-dressed Indians in designer jeans. There are a few white people scattered about. It appears they’re mainly Western businessmen. There are restaurants and a bar in the Taj, and I’m guessing a lot of people are coming here for those. I will not be drinking any coffee. Yes, I drank two delicious cups of coffee at Mocha, no milk, no sugar. I also ate a vegetarian panini that was pretty tasty but doused in oil (surprise surprise – everything in India is doused in oil it seems). And now my gastro-intestinal track, sensitized by India’s abuses and my own indiscretion in eating and drinking, is in disrepair. I’m hoping this isn’t a return of Delhi Belly, just an overdose of black coffee, something of which I have not drank in almost two months. I feel like crap, but my stomach isn’t pained like it was during bouts of Delhi Belly....

At the top right of the front page was an ad for the Sunday magazine: "I would sleep with..." where a gay fashion designer lists who he would sleep with. Homosexuality is illegal in India, btw. "Naughty gifts for gennext: Sex is just a joy toy away." Even though sex toys are illegal in India, according to today's paper urban Indians in the 18 to 21 year age bracket are gifting them to each other. Mehul Shah, a 20-year-old engineering student had this to say: "I found out about the variety of sex toys from the Internet and, on a trip to Amsterdam I bought an inflatable doll." I wonder if Mehul really said this or if the quote was made up. At M we used to make up quotes, and I don't find Indian journalism to be of the highest standards and wouldn’t be surprised if it was made up. But really, why would any real person want to say something like this for the public record? Many in India want the country to be conservative, but what’s true in the U.S. i...

During my Pittsburgh Spring, when I was never sleeping enough or studying enough, I had vague ideas of what my summer in India would be like. I knew there are a lot of hungry people in India. I also knew there are a lot of rich people in India. But in the few moments I had to speculate about what my life this summer would be like, I never imagined I would come to India and get fat. Well, the process is beginning. Mainly it happens because Indians love to see me overeat and take third helpings. The lawyers place bets at lunch about how much I’ll eat. I also feel obligated to finish all my food because so many children on the streets beg me for food. And because my gym partner is unreliable – I haven’t been to the gym in two weeks, although I have woken up at 5:50 to go the gym nearly every morning and he doesn’t show – I went jogging this morning on the Bandra Sea Face. It’s embarrassing for me to go jogging because so few people jog, and the white guy in shorts running on the streets g...

Because in addition to being a legal trainee, I am also a journalist, I need to devote this weekend toward writing some articles and doing extra legal research. My trips to Mocha, the coffee shop (“coffees and conversations”), usually suck. It’s crowded. It takes 30 minutes to get a cup of coffee if a waiter even comes to your table. But I was awake early today, and I ventured to Mocha hoping to find free tables. So here I am at Mocha. It’s not crowded on this early Sunday afternoon. It took a long time for my ordered coffee to arrive at my table, but… The coffee, I am overwhelmed with joy to report, is better than Starbucks. I have always found Starbucks to be mediocre coffee, but in law school it became my standard cup. Today I drank some Malabar Monsoon coffee. The Malabar Coast is the Indian coast from Goa south to the extreme southern tip of India: in the modern state of Kerala. Mocha’s menu reports that European sailing vessels would bring coffee from the Malabar Coast to Europe,...

Amand, my shoe-shining friend who I bought the box for, reappeared in my life today. I was supposed to meet him last week, but I was sick, and I never had the ambition to make it over to Linking Rd., and then I went to Goa. It’s a pretty big hassle for me to get to Linking Rd. after work because after work I have to come home and work on writing my blog and writing for Jurist. Plus, I usually stay at work for 10 or 11 hours. I wasn’t sure if Amand would still be at Linking Rd. He’s supposed to start shining shoes at a train station. But I went there today, and there he was at McDonalds. He saw me, and he was real excited to see me. He wasn’t doing very well. He said he hadn’t been making much money since the rains have started so heavily. He said no one wants their shoes shined on Linking Rd. in the rain, but they would want their shoes shined in a train station. He said he got his license from the railway company, but now he needed the blue shirt. Blue pants and blue shirts are the un...

I’ve been floating adrift at work. I sit at my desk, and I have trouble staying awake generally. I spend a lot of time writing emails, posting the blog entries I write at home, and reading WSJ.com and Economist.com. Using Westlaw, the endlessly huge legal database, I find very interesting articles on subjects I want to read about. Indian law mostly, and I’m learning Indian law real well. I also sort of latch on and listen to what my colleagues are doing. I read the company’s contracts. I read case law and statutory law that’s relevant to our pending litigations. I go to court and see these litigations play out. But just generally learning Indian law isn’t a goal to work towards. A goal would maybe help keep me awake and give me some motivation. Plus, what will I put on my resume? Just that I spent all summer studying Indian law at the desk of a company? Interns in India are always working on “projects.” People hear that I’m a legal trainee, and they want to know what my “project” is. W...

The medicine from Dr. Schimpi has made me feel much better. I’m happy again, and I am enjoying Indian food once more. Still, I would prefer less oil. And although I lost my strong black coffee craving during my week of Delhi Belly, now I want European cheese and El Maguey (Mexican food). It rained all night and all morning. I’m going to the Indian state of Goa today. Goa was Portugal’s home base for its huge spice trade business back in the day ( click here ). There are still a lot of Catholics down there and Portuguese architectural ruins. It's a one hour plane ride south of Mumbai. (My landlord family is staunchly Catholic, and they’re from Goa. This is why the glow in the dark Jesus stares down at me in my bedroom. Last weekend he got blown off the wall during the storms. He lost his head and broke his arm. I hung the headless Jesus back on the wall.) Goa is famous for the hippies that have been coming there since the 60s. Ravers came in the '90s, and a style of electronic G...

I had to run an errand after work today in South Mumbai. Not all the way South, just four stations down the suburban railway. The monsoon may have come on slow, but it is definitely upon us now. Two or three storms roll through every night, and usually some in the day too. I’ve always been able to time the walk from my apartment to my office and back during periods where it’s not raining. It rained all day today. The day I had to run my errand. Cars driving through puddles only once splashed me today, and I’m thinking that the brown stains won’t show up on the grey pants. Keeping my work clothes clean is a major goal of mine. I gave my umbrella last weekend to Jingyi and Christine, I think, and I didn’t have an umbrella today. I borrowed one from Mritunjay. His umbrella would not survive the trip. I didn’t need the umbrella anyway. Even though it poured rain for a large part of the day, by 6pm, when I set off on my journey, it was just drizzling. Trying to walk with all the people in t...