Yesterday my batch (well, atleast most of us), got together to take a photograph for our Recruitment Brochure. Firms and other people who seek to give us employment at the end of our 5 years will get to see this photograph of 180-odd individuals in black blazers and a white shirt and it will signal to them that we are worthy of being employed, or something. I believe that’s what the logic is.
That photograph is not something I would have missed for the world. We’ve spent 3.5 years at this University now, and with 1.5 years left (which is barely anything, to be frank), the way interpersonal relationships have developed across the batch have been quite the sight to see. The unity for some causes, the debates and polar approaches for others, it’s been quite a wild ride. This photograph just felt like it captured that.
An occupational hazard of being a Lawyer or a Law student is having attire that is remarkably monochrome. When I was a kid, I remember recounting to my mother how desperate I was to be in a workspace that allowed me to wear light pastel colours which weren’t drab. Yet, here I am.
Anyway, the photograph itself also stamped a sense of “wow, we’ve become old” in my head. That wasn’t a feeling I was prepared for at all. I remember my fourth years very vividly, one of them had even come back to campus recently and I got to spend some time with him, and I remember my fifth years, and I now realize that for a whole set of kids who come into college – my batchmates, my peers, we’re now those people.
I don’t think much prepares you for that.
Universities, and all educational spaces, I feel, sometimes understate the impact that the crowd that you’re around can have on you.
That gave me a lot to think about, in terms of what I learnt from my seniors that I want this University to continue to celebrate and cherish, irrespective of the manner in which the culture changes here.
And I’m grateful that I have 1.5 years left to put that into effect.
Tejas Rao 