Leaving Bombay...

Got done with my internship yesterday.Will come out with a piece on it very soon.Am leaving for home in the evening.Take care guys...

A thanksgiving...

There are a lot of people I need to thank before it's too late...Friends, thanks for your love and support right through the effort. Words fail me to thank you all...here are some names, which deserve a special mention:

Hoysala, Rachit, Anuraag , Arya, Aparna, Kunal ,Varsha, Shagun, Iti, Kriti, Jassi, Anubha, Rao, Gaurav, Sherin, Siddharth, Nikhil, Mahita, Rajveer, Kundan, Dadhich, Arvind, Neil, Adarsh, Roy, Amit Shankar, Bikramaditya and Apoorv..Thank you all for bearing with me...I owe all my experiences to your good wishes...Even you all know that I have been lucky...Please don't think that I am being flamboyant but the truth remains that 'the harder you work, the luckier you get.' Right?

Thanks Chhotu, Monal, and Sonu...Thanks Rana da and Tinku da.

Thanks Bhavin, Shantanu, Anshu and Patel.

Among others, I must thank Dr.Sivakumar (who also happened to be the coach...not per se actually but still...), Mr.Shanthakumar, Dr. Maheshwar Singh, Mr.Uday Shankar, the authorities and staff at the Law School.

I thank the State Govt. of Chhattisgarh. Without their financial support, this could have never been possible.

Thanks Dr.McDonald, Dr.Fitzgerald, Queenie, Ira, Adiba, Chris, Vincent, Lydia and all other mooters and researchers...After all, fixitmartsucks.com didn't actually suck. Did it?(Others...to know more about the moot problem which involved domain name disputes, check out the QUT website at http://www.law.qut.edu.au/about/moots/lawasia/...The moots were regulated by the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Thanks Steve...you write extremely well and have always inspired.

I thank all my uncles, aunts and cousins for all the blessings.

Lastly, I thank God for bestowing me with such wonderful parents.

I dedicate this blog to all the above. God willing, each one of you will stand out like the Sun does over the Pacific.

If anybody is hurt owing to anything contained in this blog, feel free to make yourself herd.

People who have been reading this blog would have wondered about the rationale behind writing about an episode, which took place three months back. Since the semester got over on 12th, April, I have blogged at every available opportunity ...kindly forgive for this inordinate delay.Well, more than anything else, this blog would forever remind me of all the sweat, tears, slip-ups and contributions that went into the entire thing. Rest assured, I'll keep things fair and square.

The catharsis that Australia was...

The last glance back...

Had left for the train station by 8:30 AM.Was completely in control of my senses as I found the apartment keys in my pocket few minutes away from the train station.Had it not been the compassionate cab driver, a case of theft could have been registered.The Main Beach area happened to be his domain and he promised to handover the keys to the authorities at the apartments.Never heard from them...must have returned.The flight took off on time and I was at Raipur on the morning of 26th, March, hopping over Hong Kong and Delhi on the way.

For another account of what happened at Gold Coast, check out the post titled "a 'brief' account of my days in australia" on Lydia's blog at http://kakikopi.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_kakikopi_archive.html... scroll down the page to find it...She has imputed certain adjectives in her description of day 4...she also has some pictures from the moot at http://lydialeesansan.multiply.com/photos/album/18

"Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him."Henry Miller

A sudden burst of energy....

Let it speak for itself...

God is great.

A spectacle of a lifetime...

The Pacific shines...

Finally...the first blush of light.

Few poignant seconds...the tranquility forces you into contemplation...

The Main Beach skyline in expressionless anticipation...

Early hours of 25th March, 2005...anxious moments before the Sunrise.

The last gathering...did you notice my biggest investment in Australia?...yup, the 15$ haircut...couldn't wait for the other teams to join as most of my packing was still left...few stories were exchanged and was asked to join them again for the sunrise next morning.

The phone booth near the apatments...made most of my calls from here.

The skyline at Surfer's Paradise...the sea doves are still around.

At the beach at Surfer's...can you see that shadow?...that's me lost in thought.

Evening of 24th March, 2005...headed straight for the Surfer's Paradise from the train station...here at an aborginal art store...picked up two boomerangs from here...

On a pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane River while heading for the train station to catch one to Gold Coast.

With Dr.McDonald who is in-charge of the Moot Court Department at QUT.

The Moot Court hall at the QUT...Gone are the days of bulky briefs...QUT envisages a day when the lawyers would enter court rooms armed only with CD-ROM's and Flash Drives...the giant screen is for the judge....each mooter has his own computer and uses the same to guide the judge through his brief...all moots are recorded on camera for the students to analyze their own performances.

The GABA

I wasn't as lucky...The Brisbane Lions(Australian rules football team) were playing before ta packed home crowd...There was no way I could have seen the turf.

Before GABA, lets have a look at the Sydney Cricket Ground...Dad was lucky enough to get this picture taken inside the stadium in April, 1999.

Was at the front seat...Dr.Fitzgerald is a sports lover and promises to stop by the GABA, the Brisbane cricket ground on the way.

Dr. MacDonald(moot coordinator...also in-charge of the Commonwealth and Stetson International rounds) and Dr.Fitzgerald were kind enough to take few of the participants to to Brisbane for us to look around the QUT, Faculty of Law...on the Gold Coast- Brisbane highway...world famous Movie World (Warner Bros. owned) was on the way...couldn't visit it though...had constraints of time and money.

With Ira and Dr.Fitzgerald

The Closing Ceremony lunch of the LAWASIA Conference...few blessed moot participants who were hanging at the Convention Centre then, were let in owing to the kindheartedness of Mr.Fitzgerald...had my first ever fortune cookie after the lunch...these dragons are celebrating the declaration of Hong Kong as the next conference venue.

Last day...At the mall at Surfer's Paradise...

An undesigned interlude...Bombay again

Bombay...13th June, 2005...11:15 PM...I along with Shantala and Sandeep(Boss's juniors) come out of the office, and after the daily game of death(i.e. crossing the road) are strolling on the dimly lit sidewalk on our way back...a sturdy looking drunkard who has gulped down enough to smell like an inbriated pig with a gold chain strapped on, closes in on us and collides his hand against mine...he doesn't seem to fancy my spontaneous askance and barks,"Apun Indian hai...haath laga to problem hai kya?....kyaa?"(I'm an Indian...did my hand bother you or what?)...Before I retort back, Sandeep is quick to pull me aside as we watch him swagger past us...Message from Sandeep,"Don't ever mess with drunkards here!!!...unless you want to be knived for no reason..and always carry sir's visting card incase you end up in some police station...not all is hunky-dory over here boss."Point well taken.

We have no matters in the morning today.Can blog for some more time.

A bit of panic...

Lost my way while heading back...reached some other place instead of Main Beach...took almost 2 hours and 4 people to to find out the correct way...most of the people I asked were tourists and had little idea themselves...a shirtless gentleman rushing towards the beach with a surf board in his hands guided me to the main road...was quite dark by now and for the first time my nerves were under some tension...had been walking for almost two hours now and didn't carry enough money for a cab...finally, caught a bus from a bus stop across this hotel...reached safely.

At a place called Surfer's Paradise...evening of 23rd March.

Self-obsessed at the Pacific Fair

At the Pacific Fair...the largest shopping mall there.The entire Australian trip cost me around fifteen thousand rupees and a quarter of it was spent here.

Saw some unparallel sights here...is unparallel a proper word for topless girls...common, just a question...

The beach at Burleigh Heads...

A 6$ meal at the Burleigh Heads...

And him?...common

And how could I miss them?

How could you ever expect me to not meet him in Australia?...here at David Fleay's Wildlife Park.

To call a cab, just look out for one of these boxes and drop a 2$ coin (make sure to collect your bill) ...the nearest cab around would be at your service and the amount would be adjusted against the rent.

I am kind of satisfied with whatever I achieved...it's the morning of 23rd March, 2005...am not at the Southport District Courts to see the finals between Hong Kong and Australia...am here for two more days and and should make the best of the time left...here at the Burleigh Heads.

That's it for me.If only my co-mooter had been there...but then no man can change is destiny.Can he?Receiving my certificate from Dr.Brian Fitzgerald, Head, School of Law at QUT. Dr. Fitzgerald specialises in technology laws and had drafted this years moot problem...check out his profile at http://www.law.qut.edu.au/about/staff/lsstaff/fitzgerald.jsp

The Queen of Hearts

At Mano's, an Italian restaurant...That's Queenie Lau, the Chinese girl with a British accent...she is a law graduate from Cambridge and is currently in University of Hong Kong for the course that would make her eligible to practice in Hong Kong where her parent's live...I remember telling her as we walked along that she would go home with the best mooter prize...She instead told me that she was looking forward to meeting me in the semi-finals...my prediction turned out to be true...and hers...well, I missed out to the International University of Malaysia by just 8 marks after two moots...However, I couldn't stop myself from pulling Ira'a leg as I had beaten them in the preliminaries...she smiled back but I guess I had hurt her...had no intention though...

Queenie wants to be a politician and is very possessive about Tibet...Chairman Lau?...who knows?...was wonderful talking to her over the dinner.

The participants just before heading for the dinner ceremony where the certificates would be handed out and the semi-finalists announced.

Certainly not a rare sight there...but I was too exited to care for those cold looks people threw while I captured this one.

The camera was placed on a similar table few yards away as the self-obssessed maniac had just taken his seat after adjusting the timer mode.

Self-obsessed maniac on his way back to the apartment...on a jogging track that ran along the beach...that right hand is sticking out and the camera happens to be in it.

Loitered at the Mirage till the Sun was out again...

The Southport Yacht Club was just across.

Came out on the road soon and came across this dock at the estuarine waterfront area as I walked towards the Marina, a shopping arcade.

If....

If only I were one amongst these...I could have carelessly strolled on these sublime beaches while men who had travelled thousands of miles to see us would be left gaping as we spread our wings and vanished into the skies over the enormous pacific on cloudy autumn afternoons like these...If only...