FIR LODGED, 2011

I woke up early in the morning from my unpleasant dreams and rememberd that I am to dash to the court to stand as a witness this morning. This is the first time I will be visiting a criminal court. Presenting myself well dressed and right on time I was in the belief of venturing into something bold and hot state of affairs, as we observe all the time in reel life.

When I reached there my impression  about the ambience of the court which should be distinguished from other buildings,I am sorry to say, at least in my opinion,was lacking at my first glance.

How dark and dull the place was even in that sunny morning! An age-old gate was  thrown open to embrace every body there -from cats, dogs, beggers, accusers, accused, police and their worn out- rustic vans.
A miserable scene to witness.

The trees, plants and a lawn  which was not very large - all were lying in a shabby order. Hardly any body looks after them. The railings inside the gate were dirty with birds’ droppings.

I proceeded  slowly  through them.

Large number of lawyers  were wandering here  and there,  not a single bench to seat. Some of them were standing clustered together near the entrance of the gate with particular motives might be or were loitering aimlessly.

One lady lawyer caught hold of me to whisper something in my ear. I couldn’t make out initially what she was saying.

 “Excuse me!” I said.

“Do you need an affidavite?” she repeated for the second time.

A few steps ahead, before answering the first  one, another lawyer stepped forward and  whispered in my another ear,

 “Let me know the case, I can help you”.

I was perplexed.
"Do the lawyers have to get their clients this way every-day?” I asked myself.
I never expected the respected lawyers doing something like this.

We, the Hindus usually encounter this sort of persuasion in our religious places where a class of  Pujaries, whom we call “Pandas” run after the worshippers to help them in performing Pujas and expect money in return. This is their way of every day earning. Here the same thing was happening as well.

Our honourable young Lawyers were being driven to persuade and help their clients in their cases and were being paid for it. It was really humiliating, not on their part, but for the system of the court itself. They should have been allotted one special room for them which probably was there but none that I could notice.

Most of them were not looking very well-off either, as I noticed them closely. I regretted their helplessness.

“I prefer not to take any", I answered in short and moved ahead.

My eyes met Mr. D’souza, the accused, in the lounge but he instantly changed the direction of his eye-balls and pretended to follow the movements of other people around. His innocent,so called pious and calm look,  no body knows, how could deceive people on some occasions.

“A difficult person to handle,” I murmured.
"Nothing could be done without his help in the business, he knows it very well, still he is making such illusions. After a long thirteen years of suffering, a radical change is inevitable. We must come to a  mutual understanding through law to obtain all my dues rightfully .” I thought.

I moved onward leaving him behind in the midst of other people. The door of the chamber had just opened.

A cat was preceding me whom I had not noticed a while ago. I slowly walked behind it .

 “There is no reason why is it here!”
Perhaps, as I guessed later, it was one of the witnesses as well  like me, who had to be there to witness some evil rats’ rattling  underneath the age-old legal records as files of cases in adjacent chambers.

It entered slowly, sat silently under a lawyers chair and made a sound “Miaon”.

Carrying the same value and silence I too entered the room quietly and sat on a bench.

It was a suffocating square room without very much of sunshine and without any window. Two narrow passages showed the ways towards the other two chambers in the east side of the room.

A portion of one of those rooms, could  be seen from the place where I seated myself.  It was so dark inside, due to its unwashed walls that lights had to be kept on throughout the day.  Lots of files were stacked on the shelves,dust and might be cobweb filled, as I presumed from distance.

An old fashioned ceiling fan was hanging at the end of a long rod in my room. Its screeching sound at  regular intervals drew my attention. Twelve calenders in rows with dates written in large letters were hanging there on the wornout wall, facing the Judge, in  the west side of the chamber, might be to help him watching its big numbers very easily without any hindrance.

One big table was laid in the east side of the chamber for the judge. He was supposed to enter any time from one of those passages of other chambers.

The calender pages were flip- floping when air was passing through them from time to time, making inevitable sound polution in the room but nobody bothered.

This  scene of a court I hardly imagined in my wildest dream ever. “ Reel life is so far from real life !” I racked my brain.

In minutes the room became crowded - the lawyers, police, servants, assistants, clerks and many others  entered the room one after another.
I was sitting cross-legged. One police man correctd me not to seat like that in a chamber. I was amused to see that  some etiquette were still carried on with due rspect in the  midst of other un-methodical arrangements of the place.

Then there came into the room our very Judge. Every body stood up and bowed. I bowed as well.

He was in his middle ages. He looked slightly unwell even in this fresh hour of the morning.
He wore a loosely fitting black suit.

Many thoughts were running through my head as I gazed at him.

Possibly he didn’t have a good sleep last night. Many cases to be solved very urgently in short period of time or may be there is no body to look after him at home after his wife’s demise. Probably servant came late this morning and cooked same typical “poha”( the  judge was maharastrian ) for his breakfast in a hurry which he put aside or sent back. Might be he couldn’t afford enough money for his childrens’ education abroad.


Had  these things kept him worried?  Otherwise why he looked a bit down in the mouth?

Whatever might be the reasons I felt sorry for him and I worried also. Would he be able to give his fair judgement for every person sitting over here? Would he ever find the right solution through all these difficulties when he looked to be so under the weather?

I suspected if he could do that. After all he is a human being.

"What will happen to those people who were religiously waiting for his verdict including me?  These days increasing number of Indians criticise our Judicial system and our rule of law.  In many cases there has been erosion of democratic value. Some judgements could be “fixed”.

Levels of corruption in the lower courts may be even higher. The case may go in favour of the other party against cash offered, perverting the law and stopping it from persuing the true end of justice . Sometimes the judge and the prosecutor even worry about their own safety against the criminals!

“Que sera, sera’’ …..I muttered.

 Various adjustments of the chairs for the lawyers, and  arrangements of papers were going on,  -inclusion of this thing or abandonment of that thing etc.
I couldn’t appreciate the way they were managing all those things. Everybody present there, was busy at discussions, standing awkwardly in the middle of the hall, pulling their chairs from  here to there.

Police arrived with attendants, attendants came in with letters and Clerks with inquiries. Some people – I had no idea who they were  - were coming in and going out constantly jamming the doorway.

I felt a bit isolated, tired and oviously disgusted.

I left the room for few minutes to have some fresh air.

A ridiculous thing happened just at that moment  outside. An awful scream of a cub, I heard.
It was an ordinary street dog black in colour . The cub was trying to run away from an adult male dog who seemed to be one of the  permanent inhabitant of this enclosed area of the court. The cub was shouting on the top of his voice and was running as fast as he could and passed by the court gate.
Probably our honourable adult male dog, maintaining its dignity of  higher class order, couldn’t tolerate  this type of intrusion of a common street dog in his domain.  He returned back with great satisfaction after the cub left.

Meanwhile another incedent happened. A flock of  mobbing crows entered the complex with harsh and drawnout noises which is always their stronghold in their behaviour and one of them dropped shits on the cloak of an advocate. He was on his way to reach his car.  Another young advocate rushed for his rescue but  unfortunately there was no availability of water  nearby  --no bathroom, not a single tap or wash basin. You could only find them in the canteen at the third floor.

I felt amused watching all these dramas; but couldn’t wait for long to witness the end of it.

I was summoned to appear in the witness box. Public prosecutor carried on the legal proceedings with reference to my claim . Honourable judge listened to everything carefully and dictated a person to note down all the facts .  Proceeding  moved onward. Then the lawyer of the accused  was asked to cross examin me. By that time the room overflowed with crowd . Everybody was listenning to our arguments in rapt attention.

One hour went past easily. An awful day I experienced.

I recalled my memories of many stage shows I had done in my young life as a performer.

The immediate impact of a performance could always be seen on the faces of the spectators whether they liked it or not.

Hopefully this would going to be my last stage show, I thought, but here in this show I couldn’t achieve anything instantly what I achieved in my earliar shows.

Reserve in speech, silence and emotions, had to be maintained strictly here. I would have to wait for Judge’s verdict for few more days.
I won or lost the case,  I could hardly perceive. 

The widespread last rays of  the Sun came to be visible in the horizon when  I left the court.
The incessant flow of  life with its sorrows , hopes, desires, aspiratoins, haves and haves-not was  around me.

I reached home safely in an empty mind.