Law School can only do so much. Almost every kid that enters the gates of one will have his own prejudices and pretexts. When I did, I was staunchly against the caste based reservations and I knew no reason why death penalty could even be considered a bone of arbitrary state action. But that’s become, fortunately, my past. If I call the kid in me who walked the campus three years ago, I wouldn’t be able to reason out with him to support the same beliefs which that kid will grow up to subscribe in less than three years.

The transformation happened not because I’m more mature now. I don’t even think maturity has got anything to do with it, for kids who are born and grow up in an intellectual environment would rarely have the notions that I had when I started my law course. This day has come because of the exposure that the law school provides its students with. Courses such as Law and Poverty, Sociology and Constitutional Law give you so much to think about, that you end up challenging your own preconceived notions. The confidence that you had in expressing them falls flat when you realise that the world isn’t just black or white. The simple recognition of grey (and every other shade in between) is what broadens your horizon. It’s not merely the change of opinions, but also the transmutation of the language into a much more political one. And here I am – believing that there exists an imbalance between various groups of populace which justifies the affirmative actions taken to uplift them, and that the discretion given to the state to choose as to who would die and who wouldn’t is with no rules and guideposts. But then, this doesn’t happen with everyone, does it?

Ideologies are a set of beliefs that can never be forced upon someone. They are inherent in the thought process and conscience of one’s personality/mindset. You never choose to believe in something because you feel you should. You do so only because somewhere your reasoning hints that it is the right thing to believe. Someone after having spent half the law school life says that Kasab should’ve been shot dead right away as he would weigh heavy for the economy of the country has an inherent flaw in his thinking. His inner self (or whatever that damn thing is) gives no scope to think from the perspective that’s been proposed by a lot many sensible lads. That creates an ideology. An ideology that sticks to the principles he believed in when he had his first blush in here. The ones who recognize various other points of view and respect them for what they’re worth end up becoming ‘liberals’.

On the other hand, there are those over whom the transition has had no effect. That’s not because they find justifications for what they believe. Their deaf ears fail to comprehend reason and logic so grossly that they’ve made curtains of blindness around them. What’s more? Law School’s wasted on them, not because they choose to be ignorant, but because they have an inherent screw loose which could be fixed by none. It’s definitely impossible to argue with someone who remains ignorant, let alone with one who finds joy in being so.

Apart from these, there are those who thump their chests and claim to be of a superior breed. Why? Because it’s too main stream to follow reason and come to a logical conclusion. No matter what one tells them, their ego is going to slap them every time they even put an effort to think that there exists some sense. Their hatred for all the other people/religions/castes existing is, for them, an issue of immense proudness. I never believed the existence of such people when one someone, in my first year’s Daaru Party, pretended to be drunk and picked on his own batchmate on the name of his caste. The sight was so disgusting that one could vomit all the intestines and still not be satisfied. The same person, when a circular was issued from the VC’s office to use dry colours for the holi and not water, waived off whatever little Constitutional Law knowledge he had to invoke his ‘religion freedom’, claiming that if ‘other’ religions can ‘celebrate’ their festivals the way they want (on campus? Do we slaughter Cows here on Bakrid?), he has the right to spill a little water around. Helplessness is what I felt at such a dismayed and devastated product of this Law School. It’s even more heart-breaking to see that he’s just one person of such caravan.

Law School is wasted on such souls. It has failed at its job of instilling basic reasoning. The problem does not lie in the system; it, evidently, lies with its subjects. How does all of this come about? Hah! Beats me!