Some of the top law blogs in the country came from NLSIU and NUJS graduates. Do NALSAR students and graduates blog much? A NALSAR student writes about it. This article has been recovered from archives of now defunct A First Taste of Law.
NALSAR is a small place. From classes at 9 in the morning to dinner at 7 and beyond there’s a uniformity to the pattern of activities engaged in by its inhabitants that may at times be diametrically opposed to each other but are part of the same wavelength. One of the consequences of having a small population and being located in the middle of nowhere far from the city is that everyone knows everyone. Its milling inhabitants keep tabs of each occurrence, snake in the BH, guy in the GH, awesome 4th year placement, new surreptitiously formed moot team, ugly break up, new relationship on the cards, drunk folks at one of the many dhabas outside college, you get the gist. Living in the locales of not so glamorous Shameerpet there are 400 exceptionally diverse souls yet there is a commonality of living, a certain unity of culture. A common mode for the outpourings of so very many young and bright minds would be the blogging sphere and NALSAR has its fair share of the same.
The most renowned blog run by NALSAR students known outside of NALSAR is undoubtedly Clat Gyan a CLAT coaching website cum blog initiated by Mohammad Asadulla Shareef and co. In a cyberspace with CLAT preparation websites sprouting hither and thither it may not be a stretch to say that Clat Gyan is the leader of the bunch. What has made it stand out more so than others though isn’t simply the unmatched quantity & quality of preparatory material made freely available. The Windows section featuring posts by examination toppers and current law students (an overwhelming number of them from NALSAR) see real people share experiences with CLAT aspirants that provides a personal touch. For many of the contributors who once followed CLAT Gyan when preparing for CLAT themselves it is a lot like coming full circle. Blogs such as CLAT Gyan though typify multi author blogs with a large number of contributions that are quite professionally edited and managed.
Some deft Google searching and careful inspection throws up a whole tranche of blogs of a decidedly more personal character. Take 2013 passout Abdaal Akhtar’s blog Sleeping Pill one of the smartest people I’ve ever had the chance to meet or 2010 pass out Manav Kapur’s blog Of Life & Lurrve presently an assistant professor at NALSAR. A glance through their blogs puts you in a time capsule as you see up close their tumultuous journey from their first year (sometimes even before) and random reflections on life until the inevitable passing out from college which in more cases than not is accompanied with intense nostalgia (no, not the teary kind). Such blogs typify a genre where the college features in a peripheral manner and the blogs themselves are more informative about the writer and people than institutions.
Another digital media forum not widely known in public but with a fanatical following within NALSAR is Aap NALSARite Hain. Based on Facebook it is an eternally aflame beacon lambasting all that is wrong (and that which could’ve been) with NALSAR. With a cult like following amongst NALSARites it is tough for outsiders lacking the wealth of institutionalized knowledge and lore known only to those part of the tightly knit student fraternity to follow the same. Whilst this holds true across each college the extent to which non NALSARites can feel lost is akin as much to a Hindi speaker attempting to decipher the Russian script.
Further exploration sees one comes across blogs with a very law specific focus as well. Aditya Swarup’s blog ‘A Social Blog’ & ‘Let’s talk about the Law’ run by multiple authors all passouts now come to mind. These burned bright initially but slowly fizzled out and a visit today show the visitor the long span of time since an update was made. Whilst I cannot claim to speak for all of them the ones that I do know of didn’t continue for a couple of reasons. A prime reason was the increasing academic workload as the years progressed and in other cases successful placements induced a reprioritization of the manner in which students chose to allocate their time. Another blog yet active and aptly titled ‘Still in Law School’ is run by various students from the batch of 2016. Featuring some monthly articles regularly it would be interesting to see whether the blog can continue to exist beyond the batch’s final years at law school if at all till its conclusion.
For a college like NALSAR so absorbed in its internal affairs and everyday life the lack of much online expression as to life inside the college and the engagement with the courses of study may seem peculiar to some. I personally do not find that to be the case for the simple reason that NALSAR is a very competitive place and everyone knows that and is imbued in that culture. Each student is driven and their activities are goal oriented. Not to suggest that students do not know how to unwind but in such an environment opportunities for self reflection or sharing of non purposive experiences is something not very high on a student’s priority list. Alternately it may well be the case that there is missing space that needs filling in. Either way it’s a matter of perspective and which one reigns ultimately is something that only time shall tell.
