#destitute like wow look at us helping the poor people : )

[piosplayhouse]

The test prep curriculum I have to teach tomorrow is just straight us propaganda with a passage that's like "many experts are lamenting American cultural colonization in foreign countries, BUT it causes a lot of economic development and makes the countries modernized so :)". Would love to shake the article writer and ask them to say with their whole chest WHY countries in south america and southeast asia are economically suffering and how us culture specifically having a stronghold there is connected and significant .. would love to know...

[nedxwynert]

Unique | Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Hope was very little when you saw that your boyfriend was cheating on you, thinking that there's nothing to live for until you meet a nice man who caught your eye.

Warnings: mentions of a breakup, heartbreak, few swear words, cheesy (I know, I'm sorry)

Word Count: 2,074 (whoops)

Masterlist

(Gif not mine)

-

Your thumbs type over the keyboard of your phone, hearing the clicks it makes whenever a letter was typed as you made your way through the downtown market of Bucharest, passing by people as they weren't in the best clothing, but it was all they had. You felt bad for them, and it always breaks your heart when you saw a child starving and did what you could to give them some cash or the rest of your food that you bought. But today, you just wanted to go pick some food and scurry back to your little destitute apartment. Today was also the day your boyfriend--. Well. Ex boyfriend, had texted you back after a while since you had caught him cheating with some girl who worked at the coffee shop you two went to.

Of course he would. Who would want someone like you? You sit in your room dreaming, drawing, grabbing novels to read almost 24/7 when most people just want to either get in your pants, steal money, or wanted to go out to parties and rub against guys and get drunk off your ass. You only just wanted to smell and paint the roses. You were done with those days of waking up with a hangover and getting in trouble with the law.

But 5 months ago when you walked in on him, smothering his lips all over that girl in the back of that cafe. That was the last you saw him, and that whole month you've spent crying a river over him, it felt like a never ending heartbreak. And the one thing that was hard for you, was to not think of him and just try to man up to it. You'd knew that would happen to you one day, but it hurts to admit it that you would ever think of such a thing.

You did your best of trying to be friends with new people to get the thought of him off your mind, but they turned you away. You tried to drink the thoughts away, but you couldn't try and lacked the money for alcohol. You read books that you got from the library, but they somehow made you think more of him. Weeks you spent on doing every little thing possible to push that bastard you loved out of your mind. And now he's texting you, telling you that he messed up when all you wanted to do is forget about his existence and try to live a normal life without falling in love. Cause all you knew was that someone is just gonna come along and ruin your life even more.

Once another text came in, you felt the tears threatening to roll down your cheeks, fumbling with the phone and shook your head while you stuffed it in your coat pocket, searching the fruit stands nearby to clear your mind. You haven't slept in days. Well, not good as you only got a few hours of sleep each night, dark circles around your eyes, nose red from rubbing it with tissues when you were crying and your cloths a slight mess from the lack of energy to go to the laundromat to wash them.

You looked like hell. Felt like hell especially.

Your (eye colour) orbs scanned the fruits that laid out in crates, scanning the prices as your teeth bit at your lower lip. Damn it. How much money did you bring?

"Would you like to purchase some fruit, miss? We got some good tasting local fruit that is picked just for you." The man who ran the stand looked over to you, seeing that he wore a white apron that was a bit dirtied up from dirt, fruit juices, and perhaps age from the looks on the edges of the fabric as it was worn out from how much it was used. You could tell he was trying to get you to buy some from how nice he was trying to be.

A fake smile curled to your lips as you saw the plums that were in front of you, knowing that the money in your purse wouldn't be able to purchase as much as you want. Small plums might waste your money when there might be something else more filling elsewhere. Fuck. Why did prices have to go up?

"No, sir. I don't think th-" A body came up next to you and cut you off from your words. It was a male. Rather tall and wore a dark red shirt, a cap on his head, and a brown coat over him that looked old from its looks.

"A few for the lady and I," the male spoke as he handed over a few plums to the man to bag while he shoved his gloved hand in his coat pocket to get his money to pay while you stood there next to him, looking at him from the side. His hair was jaw length, brown, and he had a slight beard. Then you saw his eyes. Blue as the skies like the pictures you saw of California in your books.

The moment was awkward while he paid for you when you would hear him thank to the man before handing the white bag to you, a soft smile forming his lips as those sky blue eyes looked down at you. God, he was tall.

"I saw that you looked hungry. Here." Hands took the bag as you couldn't part your eyes from the man that just bought you your dinner for tonight.

"Th-thank you. You didn't have to-"

"No no," he gave out a breathy short chuckle. "Don't thank me. I uh..I just wanted to be nice." Thank goodness. Someone who actually can show some niceness in this city. "Besides, I hope you don't mind sharing." And there was that smile again. It made your cheeks light up.

"No. Um." You couldn't help but look down and giggle softly before fixing your hair to be tucked behind one ear then looks back up to the man. "I really don't mind. Not at all."

"Maybe we could sit down for a bit? You look almost to the brink of passing out." Of course you did. If it wasn't for your fucked up relationship with your asshole of a ex boyfriend, you wouldn't be in this hell. A simple nod from you made him motion you to walk with him as he started to head to where there was a bench available to sit on to eat. Damn it. You swore everyone could hear your dying stomach growl from how hungry you wanted to have what this wonderful man bought you.

You two walked for a while till you found a spot that was quiet and sat down, your muscles relaxing as you didn't know you were so tensed up till you sat down. The skies were clouded over and it made the place even more gloomy, added with the poor people who walked around and begging for food or money. That's when your attention drew to the man who was now sinking his teeth in a juicy plum, his eyes looking ahead of him.

"May I ask. Who are you?" He didn't look at you as he had to pause for a while. Did he even hear you? Or could he be possibly making up a name in his head?

"My name is Bucky." The tone of his voice became deeper while he rested his elbows on his legs, his eyes keeping off you as you kept yours on him. He was so mysterious, you just wanted to know so much about of him.

"Where are you from, Bucky?" That's when you got his attention as he would look down to the floor before moving his head to you, some strands of his hair falling over his face. It looked as if he was asked a difficult math equation in math class.

"Would it uh." He chuckles nervously. "Sound crazy if I said that I don't know, really?" The fuck? How could no one know where they're from? Was he born on the side of a road and just never knew where he was and just walked around till today?

"You don't know where you're from?" You spoke in a bit of shock.

"No. It's uh. How do I put it? Like I can't remember most of my life." His face became more relaxed and his lips formed in a straight line, seeing pain in his eyes as it kinda made you feel bad for the man.

"I'm sorry to hear that. That's sad. Do you even know your parents' names?" Slumping back on the bench, you became even more curious for this man who couldn't remember most of his life.

"No...I don't." Once he took another bite of his plum, it became silent between you two, hearing the birds and the sounds of a city normally makes, but then he looks over at you , a soft look in his eyes that was surely making you melt right there on the bench. "What about you? What's your name?"

"It's (name). Dumb name, I know. Parents named me after one of their ancestors." Precious blue eyes looked at you and smiled when he finally knew what to call you now. This time, he showed some of his perfect teeth which surprised you a bit by how nice they looked for a man who said he doesn't remember most of his life.

"It's beautiful, for a woman like yourself." Beautiful? You? Oh hell no. Now you know he's just trying to flatter you.

"Euh, I disagree with you on that. I'm a complete mess." Your hands pointed to your clothes and the lack of makeup, tangled hair, and the dark circles under your eyes. But it seemed like he didn't care at all to it. Must be used to it from other woman here. "After my stupid boyfriend, I've been even more of a mess than before." God, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Your eyes began to water and you tried to turn your face away from how hurt you looked again at the thought of your horrible heartbreak, but you felt a cool touch like metal on your chin and turned your face to Bucky as his hand had wiped away the tears you didn't realize that had rolled down your cheeks. You just met the man and now you're starting to break down in front of him. Wow. So perfect of you. What else would you do? Start telling him your terrible life you're living? Yeah, cause that'll totally make him want to spend time with you.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to start crying in front of you." Those blue eyes looked at your now red ones as his hand didn't leave your cheek as he was warm and tried your best to not lean too much into his hand as it felt good to be touched in a nice way instead of wanting to get in your pants or slapped at.

You two giggled for a little bit as you looked at each other for a bit as it felt actually nice to be in Bucky's company. He looked like as if he knew exactly how you felt and calmed you down instantly without saying a single word. It became awkward after a few minutes of staring at each other and you saw that he had managed to finish his plum, which you haven't even touched your three others that were in the white plastic bag. "Do you actually like plums or did you just buy them for just me?" You said to break the silence.

"No. I really like them, actually. They're my most favourite and they're like candy to me." There's that smile you adored and you thought of something funny, making you giggle a bit as it made him tilt his head out of curiosity of what could make you giggle since he didn't say anything. Maybe it was what he said? He didn't know.

"You want to hear a secret?" A simple nod came from him as you smiled...a smile you haven't made in a long time, not realizing that you were doing that as the man made you so comfortable that everything you knew of pain vanished from your thoughts.

"I love them too."

Thank you for reading! Did you enjoy? If so, please consider to heart and reblog. Many writers today don’t get much credit for the hard work they put into their writing. And with that, have a wonderful day! :)

[immerlein]

Hi, I wanna ask you, like what is your opinion on this matter or maybe you know more from reading books. I have noticed that there are many atheist who have it all, a good job, friends, a partner (spouse), other material things, and yet they are atheist, they do not believe in the Lord, nor honour him. But there are good Christian people who don't have any of those things, why is that? - part 1

“Why doesn’t God his good children, who believe in him, have faith in him, love him, honour him and go to church cervices regularly. I know the Kingdom of God is not of this world, and we shouldn’t pay much attention to earthly things, but sadly we live in a material world now and I get sad you know. Like I do not have friends, nor a partner and in last time I have been feeling so lonely, but some none believer has it all.”  - part 2“I do not want to question him and his ways, but like isn’t He sad for some of us who suffer and are in pain, because I think that at least we would be grateful for what He would give to us..we are still grateful now..but why are there such injustices. Almost every girl my age has a boyfriend and that makes me feel very lonely and sad because I have no one or everyone has friends..I do not. I do not have a good friend with whom I can talk to everyday, go out and trust them.” - part 3

Hello dear friend in Christ, I will do my best to answer these your question, but it certainly is a hard one! Firstly let me say that I could feel your pain and distress as I read your messages, and my heart goes out to you. I too have been experiencing hardship lately and can certainly understand where you are coming from. 

One thing I have been learning is that while I know that I am a sinner, I had not truly been reflecting on how the sins I commit might effect me, in many areas of my life, and why things that happen to me are not because God is choosing to “punish” me, but because, by my own choice, I have chosen to prioritise sin before God. Sin is like a disease, a sickness, and it pollutes everything and everyone it touches. God has given us all the free will to choose good or to choose evil. We live in a fallen world and it is not God’s doing, but our own. And sometimes I think to myself, “why did this happen to me? I’m good! I love God, I serve God!” but in all honesty, I am not good, and I regularly miss the mark and fall short in my duties to love and serve God and others. We all do. And so I suppose the first mistake is to think any of us are “truly good”. When we start saying, “I deserve this because I am good”, we forget we are as fallen as anyone else and we fall into judgement of our neighbour. 

It is easy sometimes to look at other peoples’ lives, forgetting that we do not really see everything about them, nor do we know about their inner life, or their worries, insecurities, struggles, and say “wow, they’re so lucky…they have a spouse and a house and a good job.” There is no one in this life who does not suffer, and while we are busy envying them, they might be looking at what we have and wishing they had that instead. There is also no use in doing this, for it only causes us pain, and our Lord has told us: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6: 19-21). Every earthly or material blessing we receive from God (for all good things come from Him) will be left to someone else, or rot away, forgotten, when we leave this life. We all go into the grave as rich or as poor as everyone else. It is not easy to try and separate our heart from material possessions, but it is vital for true and lasting happiness. I myself am still working on this! I have a spare bedroom in my home filled with belongings in boxes that I cannot bear to give away, even though I don’t use them or look at them or even really think about them anymore! 

God loves everyone, and in this life blesses all - Orthodox Christians are certainly not the only ones who receive His love! “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). But it would be a mistake, I think, to confuse God’s blessings (especially material ones) for “approval” of our behaviour. God has given me many good things despite my sinfulness, and amassing a fortune of possessions makes our spiritual life more difficult, not easier! As our Lord said, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter Paradise! Earthly possessions help us forget our neighbour (as we become more invested in serving ourselves than serving others or giving to those less fortunate) and forget the next life.    

I have been doing some reading recently on Orthodox perspectives of Paradise (in the life to come) and I think it really sums up some ideas about God’s love towards all people. I will post some extracts from my reading for you:“The Orthodox teaching on it is basically that God does not desire people to be punished eternally, nor does He intentionally send them to place for the purpose of torture or torture them directly, but rather that “For those who love the Lord, His Presence will be infinite joy, paradise and eternal life. For those who hate the Lord, the same Presence will be infinite torture, hell and eternal death. The reality for both the saved and the damned will be exactly the same when Christ “comes in glory, and all angels with Him,” so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15–28). Those who have God as their “all” within this life will finally have divine fulfillment and life. For those whose “all” is themselves and this world, the “all” of God will be their torture, their punishment and their death. And theirs will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 8.21, et al.).” “According to the saints, the “fire” that will consume sinners at the coming of the Kingdom of God is the same “fire” that will shine with splendor in the saints. It is the “fire” of God’s love; the “fire” of God Himself who is Love. “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12.29) who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6.16). For those who love God and who love all creation in Him, the “consuming fire” of God will be radiant bliss and unspeakable delight. For those who do not love God, and who do not love at all, this same “consuming fire” will be the cause of their “weeping” and their “gnashing of teeth.”" 

"Paradise and Hell do not exist from the point of view of God, but from the point of view of human beings. God will love everyone equally. He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Saint Matthew 5:45). But everyone will not accept God’s grace in the same way. Some will see God as Light and other as fire. “ With all of that said, my dear anonymous friend in Christ, I know that you are hurting and again, my heart goes out to you. I remember being in your place and feeling like I would never have friends, or a spouse, or a good job. I grew up in a very abusive household but looking back I can see how much God has helped me. I encourage you to share your feelings in prayer with God, and to not lose hope. God will provide when the time is right, because only He can see everything and know what is truly for our benefit and what isn’t. Your Orthodox faith and your love of God is a greater treasure than a good job, money, or any other material possessions, or even a spouse and close friends. Nothing can take that away from you, and it will not be left to rot when you leave this life. 

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.“ (Romans 8: 35-39).

I hope this is of help to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me further if you want to talk

[minaswritingsquad]

winter swap fic: maybe it’s because i’m a londoner (rip x sara; g)

for the marvellous meg/@captainriphunter

by @smilinstar

“Welcome to London!”

So, all right, yes. Rip’s starting to sound a bit like a broken record, but he’s never not meant it. And he really does mean it this time. Wholeheartedly.

Standing here, in the middle of sprawling Hyde Park, the excitement is literally oozing from his pores. There’s a force field of energy that’s cascading outwards from him. Admittedly, it’s not having quite the desired effect of inflicting them all with the same abundant enthusiasm, but that won’t deter him in the slightest.

Because this isn’t Victorian London – the one tainted by Dickensian darkness, highlighting the bleak existence of the poor and lowest dredges of society that exploit them; and nor is it the East London of his tragic future – which the less is said about, the better.

No, it’s 2020.

And this is a London he thinks of fondly.

Oh, it has its problems, of course. Inner city pockets of crime and destitution on the rise, the homeless and the hungry – a commonplace, perennial concern that’s resistant to all drives for change. And then there’s the sky-high travel fares, still no air-conditioning on the Central Line and overcrowding on the Tube, plus the never-ending roadworks and diversions for traffic on the always teeming roads. May as well add the cold, wet weather to the list as well – a tired, worn complaint though it may be.

But it’s London.

And, well, there’s no other place quite like it.

“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t spend Christmas in Lapland this year,” Jax grumbles yet again, arms folding across his chest and feet kicking at the grass as he stares Rip down.

“Because Saint Nicholas is a delusional, 23rd century time-travelling, technology hoarding pirate, and I won’t give him the satisfaction of indulging him his whims!”

Wide-eyed, bewildered expressions zero in on him, and he shifts uncomfortably on the spot. He may have said more than he intended to just then . . .

Sara cocks her brow, and says through a poorly hidden smirk, “Kinda altruistic for a Time Pirate.”

He can’t help the look he shoots her; one that pleads ‘trust me’ and ‘drop it’ all at the same time. Because, yes, there’s a story there. And no, he’s not going to tell it now. He’s on a tight schedule.

“Wait a minute . . .” Ray starts, and he can see him putting the pieces together and the exact moment it all falls into place. “Oh,” he breathes out, and looks positively despondent at finally realising Father Christmas isn’t real thirty years too late.

“So,” Rip says then loud and clear, clapping his hands together and moving things swiftly along, “I have the day all planned out, and first-”

“No,” Mick interrupts.

“Mr Rory?”

“No to the art galleries and red buses – I hate buses. No to the museums. No to whatever boring team-bonding activities you’ve decided would be good for us.”

Rip shoves down the irritation at being so summarily dismissed, although it may have more to do with him being assessed so accurately by Mr Rory of all people. Well, almost accurately: his itinerary makes no mention of a bus tour. Frankly, he doesn’t get what the big deal is about their red double-deckers. Too many of them, and yet never there when you need them.

“Well, what would you prefer to do, Mr Rory?”

His eyes glint, and Rip’s suddenly certain this whole thing has been a terrible error in judgement.

“Tower of London.”

Of course.

“And let me guess, the Crown Jewels are of particular interest to you?”

Mick shrugs and the grin on his face isn’t altogether comforting. “Just wanna have a look. Nothing wrong with that.”

Jax snorts and says what they’re all thinking: “Yeah right. You wanna steal them, more like!”

Mick doesn’t deny it. If anything, the look he shares with Mr Jackson only confirms it.

“Absolutely not!” Rip splutters.

“Oh, let him try!” Sara says then, in a way that suggests he’ll fail miserably. Her hand rests on his shoulder as she moves to stand beside him, and it’s enough apparently to persuade him against his better judgement. Sara has an uncanny knack for it.

“Fine!” He looks over at Martin, and his meaning must be clear as the older man’s face falls.

“I was rather hoping I could visit the Royal Observatory. I’ve always wanted to stand astride the Meridian Line.”

“You do realise you’ve been travelling through time these past four years?” Nate pipes up, incredulous that of the things on Stein’s bucket list that would still be one.

“Yes, well,” is all the Professor says in answer to that.

The heart wants what it wants, after all. Rip knows that only too well as he resists the urge to look down at the woman beside him.

“It’s fine, Professor,” he acquiesces, clearing his throat, “you can do that after you’ve visited the Tower of London with Mr Rory. I believe it’s less than half an hour away from there.”

Martin agrees, and the two set off, disappearing down one of the paths leading towards Lancaster Gate station if Rip remembers right.

Hyde Park is busy as usual, though the annual Winter Wonderland attraction provides an extra layer of distraction. Perfect for landing the Waverider unseen, and making it the ideal place to park and cloak it away.

“And what about the rest of you?” he asks, shifting his weight and looking at each of them in turn.

Unsurprisingly, Ray pipes up first; “I’d love to get inside Buckingham Palace. I’ve always wondered what it’s like. And ooh! I’d love to meet the Queen!”

“I rather suspect she’s not in,” Rip mutters, not that Ray hears him as he rambles on:

“Oh, and I definitely want to see Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus? Or Madame Tussauds and Baker Street? I mean Sherlock Holmes! Wow. Or maybe-”

“How about you just take this map,” Rip interrupts, handing him the folded-up piece of paper he retrieves from his coat pocket, “and see how much you can fit in, Dr Palmer?”

Jax smiles up at Ray and shakes his head, before turning to Rip, “I’ll go with him.”

“Excellent. Grand idea, Mr Jackson. And you, Miss Tomaz?”

Zari looks up at him, and he finally notices the candy cane she’s chewing on. He’s not sure when she disappeared to get herself one of those.

“I’m cool here,” she shrugs, looking at all the stalls in the distance, the rides being set up, and the ice rink that’s slowly filling up.

It seems a bit of a waste to spend the day here; Rip doesn’t think of the Wonderland as anything particularly special – it’s not the London he wanted to share – but it’s not his choice and he’s learning to accept that not much is.

“I’ll come with you,” Amaya says to Zari, and he can’t help but notice Dr Heywood look a little crestfallen at that as he’d been quite obviously edging towards Jax and Ray, hoping Amaya would join the boys. The duelling desire plays out across the man’s face. Romance or Bromance, are apparently his options.

“Nate?” It’s Sara who asks him.

Bromance wins out as he points a finger at Ray after a second of indecision, and Nate gets a gleeful arm around his shoulder for his choice.

The team disperse and with them gone, it leaves just him and her.

And the manic energy that had possessed him in a bid to stay calm – contradictory though it is – has all but abandoned him now.

He’s not sure he wants to ask her. Too afraid of her answer. But as the silence descends and they’re left on their own, he knows he must.

So he takes a breath and tests his luck. “And last, but by no means least. Captain Lance? What is it you wish to see?”

She glances up at him.

The expression on her face is unreadable for only a moment. She says nothing as she slips an arm through his, presses her shoulder into him and lets a smile break in answer.

It’s bitingly cold. So cold, he thinks the chances of snow may have increased since he last checked the weather forecast, but he doesn’t feel it. At all. No, he feels unseasonably warm in his coat, with Sara Lance snuggled into his side, her smile turning more mischievous by the second.

Oh dear, he thinks. I’m in trouble.

He has been since the first day he met her.

He hopes he can explain away the blush on his cheeks with the cold, but from the glint in her eyes he realises it’s game over.

Yes. She’s onto him.

But Sara’s surprisingly forgiving today. Must be the Christmas spirit, as she says, “I want to see your London, Rip. Not the one you think we want to see.”

“It’s not my London,” he corrects.

“You know what I mean.”

He nods and relents. “Well, in that case Captain, allow me to be your guide for the day.”

And as they head off, he thanks small mercies for at least one of his plans coming together.

 *

 Rip’s London is exactly as she’d imagined.

Quiet, winding cobblestone streets found through dark alleyways. All leading away from the hustle and bustle of the main roads, filled with people and cars, and modern-day buildings amongst the old. Hidden gems of coffee shops, antique stores and boutiques tucked away in the corners you’ll only find if you’re looking.

After he’s done showing her those, she finds herself being guided past the food stalls inside Borough Market, weaving her way around the bottle green pillars and swarms of people grabbing late lunches. Rip offers commentary on what’s on offer, stopping now and again to point out his favourites and she can’t keep the incredulous look from off her face.

He stops, and scoffs at her surprise, “I don’t know where you lot have got this idea that I live off scotch and jellybeans, but I assure you I have quite the remarkable palate.”

She raises a brow, grins back at him.

It’s met with rolling eyes and a faint blush.

She helps herself to all the little morsels of food they put on display in attempts to lure you to buy more. Of course, she doesn’t buy a thing, leaving Rip to shake his head and feel guilty enough for the both of them.

After all, what’s a little more guilt to add to his already heavy burden?

It bothers her. Of course it does.

It isn’t to say that’s he’s not faultless. That it’s not unwarranted. But it’s been a long time now. And he’s been forgiven. Many times over. The only person who hasn’t forgiven him is himself.

She’s had this conversation with him. Sara had thought that sharing the Captaincy, or dividing the role in a way befitting their expertise, would have made the point loud and clear. But nope, it seems like they have a long way to go yet.

He even still defers to her on missions. The choice of destination for their well-deserved winter break after defeating Mallus is the first unilateral decision he’s made for some time.

And she wonders at its significance.

Because maybe she’s imagining it, but she thinks there’s an added twinkle of something to the intensity of his gazes now. And that together with the flush on his cheeks when he’s caught in the act allows a little hope to take root every single time.

This setting doesn’t help much either.

Strolling the streets of London, arm in arm, cheeks flushed, eyes smiling as he points out landmarks. Regaling her with stories of all the places and sights he’s fond of with relish.

It’s something.

She’s never really been wined and dined, ‘wooed’, as Rip might say, but she imagines it to feel a lot like this and she doesn’t really know what to do with it.

Because, this? For Rip? It’s bold.

“How do you know this place so well?” she asks, and the glance he sends her has her rolling her eyes this time. “I mean, I know it’s London. But you said it yourself, it’s not the London of your time. You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

“Well,” he shrugs, “not to this time exactly, but close enough.”

Sara waits for the rest of the story, but it doesn’t come. She doesn’t have time to get irritated, though, because he’s suddenly tugging on her hand and they’re off running.

It says something about what their lives are that her first instinct is to look behind her –every sense heightened, fingers searching for the hilt of her dagger, ready to take on any threat. She realises a moment later that Rip’s not running from danger, but rather chasing one of the open back red buses down the road. The traffic has built up enough for it to come to a standstill, allowing them to catch up and for him to pull her aboard.

He’s a little winded as he lets go of her hand and wraps one around the red metal pole in front of him, the other searching his pocket for his Oyster card before pressing it to the yellow reader on the side. At his pointed look, Sara follows his lead and fishes out her own card. She returns his gaze with her own expectant one, hands curling around the same pole to steady herself as the bus moves off with a hiss and rumble of the engine.

He sighs. “I visited a few times in the years I was building the Bureau.”

“A few times?”

He nods.

“Why?”

“Because I could,” he says – a complete non-answer.

She feels a familiar frustration itching under her skin. Rip’s penchant for being cryptic and only ever telling half a story sadly isn’t something he’s managed to kick entirely to the curb. He’s trying to be more open, sure, but old habits creep in – the weeds deep-rooted and hard to kill.

She knows it’s written all over her face. It’s why he won’t look at her, eyes focussing instead on the windows and the traffic moving in the opposite direction.

The bus ride is a short one and they’re hopping off onto Westminster Bridge, and he still hasn’t said any more. She follows him down the steps onto the embankment, the Houses of Parliament lining the water on the opposite side; the London Eye a familiar silhouette amongst the City’s skyline behind them.

She stops mid-stride, and waits for him to notice.

He does.

“Sara?”

She moves towards one of the wooden benches, sits down and stares back at him.

Rip tilts his head at the grey skies and sighs. “It’s really not that interesting of a story.”

“Tell me anyway.”

He blows out another breath before taking the few steps back towards her and sitting down in the empty spot she left him.

“Building the Bureau was hard work,” he begins to tell her. “I was certain I was doing the right thing. I believed completely in the endeavour. It’s necessity. And at first, it was fine. I was so focussed on creating it, that when it was done, I felt myself floundering.”

He doesn’t look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I felt lost. I missed –” he stops, and starts, “I missed a lot of things.”

Sara fills in the blanks of what he’s not saying and it’s like her insides are blazing alight with feeling, and all she wants to do is reach out and hold his hands, and tell him that she missed a lot of things too.

But she doesn’t, says instead, “You missed home.”

He nods.

“This isn’t really your home,” she retorts, hand waving around them.

“I know that. But it’s the closest I have to one, and I wasn’t going to go to 2166 for obvious reasons.”

She tilts her head in acknowledgement, twisting ever so slightly towards him so her knee brushes against his.

“Do you still feel like that?” she asks softly.

“Like what?” he asks, eyes on the murky depths of the River Thames, turning darker every minute. Evening draws closer earlier in the winter months. It’s not even half three in the afternoon and the skies are already turning dark. The street lights blink on, the Christmas decorations hanging from the lamps, the trees, all sparkling to life, and it starts to feel like a whole new city.

“Like you don’t really have a home?”

Rip looks at her then.

Eyes dark, and she still hasn’t figured out exactly what that look means, though she has her suspicions, and she feels she’s getting closer to unravelling its secret.

He says nothing; only stands and offers his hand. “Come on, then, Captain. Lots left to see.”

And it must mean something that it’s him with the outstretched hand this time. And not her.

She doesn’t let it go to waste. She slips her hand into his.

And despite the chill, his hand is warm.

 *

 There’s something about seeing the wonder of his city through someone else’s eyes.

Her eyes.

He can see her falling a little more in love with it, one street at a time. Not that she’ll admit it, he knows.

Of course, most of it’s undone when he has to get them onto the London Underground. The novelty wears off the moment they have to push themselves onto a packed train and Sara finds herself eye level with a man’s armpit, sweat soaking through the shirt.

Rip stands in front of her, holding onto the rail above his head and grins down at her as she shoots daggers at his amusement. As the train moves off she loses her balance just a fraction and leans into him. He hopes the ruckus of the train on the tracks as it hurtles through the tunnels is enough to mask his racing heart.

Because Sara Lance may just be falling in love with the city, but he’d fallen in love with her a long time ago.

He just hasn’t figured out how to tell her – or if he should at all.

He’d been hoping that today would help; that letting her get a glimpse of a little more of him through the sights and sounds of a place near and dear to him, would give him the courage to do so.

But as the daylight fades, and the evening starts to settle in, he hears the tick of the clock in the wind and he fears the day’s been wasted.

They re-enter Hyde Park through the Knightsbridge entrance, the winding paths leading towards the Serpentine. There are no row boats on the water – boating season being at an end two months ago, and yet he doesn’t correct his path.

Sara seems to realise where they’re heading, and he can see the bemusement on her face as she glances sideways up at him.

“It’s closed,” she says.

He stops and twists so that he’s in front of her now, and he says with a raised brow, “Is it?”

Hope blooms once more at the sight of a smile turning her face soft, eyes bright in the darkness as they reflect the lights that have lit up the entire park.

He can feel her eyes on his as he hurries on ahead and manages to jump the fence cordoning off the boats.

“You know that’s stealing?” she says with a smirk, the words familiar as she follows after him.

“When has that ever stopped me?” he bats back.

She shakes her head, watching him push the row boat out before climbing in and holding out his hand.

She takes it.

“We’re going to get caught,” she says, settling back as Rip takes control of the wooden oars.

“And when has that ever bothered you?” he asks her.

“It doesn’t,” she shrugs, “I’m just wondering how long we’ve got, and if it’s enough time for you to spit out whatever it is you’ve been wanting to say to me all day?”

He can’t help the little stutter in his rowing motion at the words and risks a glance up at her. There’s a familiar reckless glint in her eyes, and maybe, once upon a time, he may have run at the sight. But life, he’s realised, is much too short, even with the infinite possibilities of time at your fingertips.

And so he says with a smile, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Captain Lance,” and makes it a point to meet her gaze and hold it.

His lips say one thing, his eyes another.

She’s the first to look away as they come to a standstill.

The water around them is now an inky black to reflect the sky. Streaks of electric blue and white with glimmers of red and green bounce off the ripples of water from the nearby funfair. There’s the faint sound of laughter carried in the cold breeze.

“Why did you bring me here, Rip?”

“You wanted to see my London.”

It’s not enough. She wants more, and he never could say no to her.

“I used to come here a lot,” he adds. “There’s just something peaceful about here. And I wanted to share it with you.”

Sara nods, looks away.

And he wonders if now’s the time. He’s been thinking about this moment for months. Months where he’s started to believe that maybe he wasn’t alone in his feelings. That it’s been a long time for him – long enough – and he doesn’t need to torture himself with the guilt any more.

It’s now or never, he realises.

Now or never.

“Earlier, when I said I missed a lot of things, Sara. I meant the team. The Waverider.”

She nods, “I know.”

He takes a deep breath. “But mostly, I meant you.”

She says nothing to that. Eyes turning instead to meet his and holding him there as his mouth turns unbearably dry, heartbeat a rapid thump-thump-thump rushing in his ears.

It’s a nervous sort of energy that buzzes under his skin now as he tells her what he hasn’t been brave enough to before now. “I’m sorry about how things –”

“Say sorry one more time and I’ll capsize this tiny boat and let you freeze to death.”

Rip huffs out a laugh in surprise, his breath turning to instant clouds of white in front of him in the cold, winter air.

She’s edged closer and he has no idea when she’d managed to do that.

Her hand lands tentatively on his knee as she looks up at him, blue eyes open and glittering with stardust, the map of freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks clearing a path for his thumb to brush over as he reaches out to hold her face in his hand.

“I’m glad we’re here now,” she says.

His eyes drop to her lips.

Hers follow suit.

“Me too.”

And he wants to kiss her, tell her everything he’s run out of words for, and for a bright, shining moment, it’s a reality waiting to happen, not just remnants of an impossible dream he’s grasped at countless times before.

But then:

“Captains? Captain Lance? Captain Hunter? Uh, guys? You there?”

The voice is loud and clear in his ears, in both their ears, shattering the moment in one fell swoop. With his heart beating wildly already, Rip resists the urge to swear out loud as his hand falls away and he reels back. Sara has no such qualms though as she curses, “Dammit, Ray!”

Seems they’d both forgotten about their comms.

Talk about timing.

Rip manages to clear his throat and steady his voice, “Yes, Dr Palmer?”

Ray sounds both sheepish and apologetic, and yet it does little to check his irritation. “Uh, sorry to interrupt your date with Sara –”

“It’s not a date.”

“Sure,” Nate chimes in from somewhere in the background as Sara says the same in front of him.

He looks back at her sharply and sees the teasing grin on her face.

She shrugs and he’s shaking his head with the beginnings of his own smile.

Not that it lasts long as Ray continues his sentence;

“But Professor Stein’s just called us, and uh, that thing? That thing you told Mick not to do, well . . .”

“And by that thing, Dr Palmer, are you referring to trying to steal the Queen’s crown jewels by any chance?”

“Maybe?”

He shares a look of pure suffering with Sara before shaking his head.

“We’ll be right there,” he says as there’s a faint buzz and a click as Ray severs the connection again, leaving the two of them alone once more.

“I guess it’s time to go break the kids out of prison, huh?” she asks as he picks up the oars.

“Never a dull moment with you lot.”

“But you love us anyway.”

And it feels like she’s asking him something else.

And so he doesn’t think about it, just leans forward and presses his lips to hers, a quick fleeting promise of more, and whispers against her skin, “I do.”

She presses her forehead against his and breathes out. “Merry Christmas, Rip.”  

Rip simply smiles. A true, honest-to-God smile he hasn’t felt belonged on his face. Not for a long time. Not until today.

“Merry Christmas, Sara.”

[sexysilverstrider]

morgan can i call u morgan wherever u are pls post this one ao3 too or just exist in front of me so i could hug u n never let go

Hey, it’s the anon from a while ago. You know, the one who talked to you about that Berkut AU? I saw that you went through all the sadness of the post-Berkut battle in the game, so I thought I would submit you a little cousin bonding (with a dash of Berinea) fic based on that AU to cheer you up/distract you from Echoes canon. Although, there’s still that small dose of angst because I love it and I know you do as well. Hope you enjoy! Sorry if it doesn’t seem to flow well, the idea I was going for was parallels, so having a moment from childhood and then having a moment in present day. P.S.: To explain a certain thing I mention in this fic, it’s a headcanon of mine both in this AU and in canon that Alm’s circlet is from his mother and that Mycen is allergic to cats.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wow…These belonged to our mothers?”

Young Alm, barely eight years older, and his cousin Berkut, who wasn’t much older, gazed at the objects in their hands with awe. Alm held a dark blue circlet that had a simple silver design in the front. Berkut held a small golden ring that had a beautiful design crafted on it.

“Yes, your mothers both entrusted them to me so that you boys would have something to remember them by,” Mycen explained as the children carefully examined the gifts, “That circlet was your mother’s favorite Alm, the first gift she received from your father when they were courting. And Berkut, that was your mother’s treasured wedding ring.”

“…We can keep these?” Berkut asked softly, eyes never leaving the one and only thing he had left of his parents.

“Well, I should hold onto those for now, I think.”

“But why?” the boys whined simultaneously, pouting at their grandfather.

“You two get into far too much trouble,” Mycen chuckled, “You could easily lose or break them. Don’t worry, when you’re older and more responsible, they will be yours to keep. And I do hope you both grow into people who make these items’ original owners proud.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How long do you plan on staring at your reflection, cousin?”

Alm’s cheeks felt hot as he turned to glare at Berkut, who had caught him staring at the hallway mirror. Berkut’s smug look turned to one of slight surprise as he took a good look at Alm.

“Ah, I see…You’re wearing your mother’s circlet.”

“I’m finally old enough for it to fit,” Alm replied, a hand gently brushing against the cold silver design.

“I understand,” Berkut said, raising his hand to show that he was wearing his mother’s wedding ring, “Glad Grandfather finally decided we’re old enough to have them.”

“I just wish he’d tell us more about our parents,” Alm turned back to the mirror, frowning as he looked at the circlet in the reflection, “I mean, all we know is that my father and your mother were siblings, they died soon after our births, and that our mothers left us these gifts. But I wanna know more about their personalities, their lives.”

“I agree but you know very well how troubled Grnadfather looks whenever we ask about them. To have lost both his children so suddenly must have hurt him deeply, it’s probably too painful for him to talk about it.”

“I know that, but…”

Berkut chuckled as he dragged a protesting Alm away from the mirror.

“One day soon, we’ll learn about our parents, Alm,” he said before adding in a more competitive tone, “Until then, let’s focus on learning how to swordfight without breaking any more pots.”

“Hey! Tobin started it and you know it!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Berkut, you can’t tell Grandpapa!”

Berkut hadn’t even had the chance to welcome Alm home before the younger boy ran inside, arms hiding something wrapped in a blanket. Berkut raised an eyebrow as Alm motioned for him to come closer, moving the blanket just a little to reveal the contents.

“Is that a kitten?”

Indeed, sleeping soundly amidst the warmth of the blanket and Alm’s arms was a small orange kitten, fur covered in leaves and bits of twigs. Berkut’s eyes widened at the sight of the small creature before he hesitatingly stroked her head with his finger.

“Isn’t she cute?” Alm, who usually grumbled at the slightest hint of looking “unmanly”, cooed, “I found her by the meadow. Celica went off to get some milk for her.”

“She’s so tiny,” Berkut murmured, “Wait…Why can’t we tell Grandpapa about this? You know he’s allergic to cats.”

“We’ll hide her in Celica’s room! Grandpapa will never know she’s here,” Alm replied happily. He noted the unconvinced look on his cousin’s face, “C’mon, Berkut, you love cats as much as me and Celica do. And you know with Grandpapa’s allergies we’ll never get to have one until we have our own house!”

“We’re definitely gonna be found out by dinner,” Berkut sighed, “But fine, I guess I can help.”

“I knew I could count on you! Now c’mon, pick a name! Celica has one in mind, and so do I.”

“Um…I…” Berkut stammered, “W-well, she’s orange…So, maybe we can call her Orange?”

Berkut fought a losing battle trying not to blush under Alm’s unimpressed stare.

“Ugh, you and Celica picked such boring names,” Alm complained, “She wanted to name her ‘Emily’.”

“Well, what’s your suggestion then?”

Alm, grinned, as if he’d been waiting for Berkut to ask.

“Purrscilla, of course!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Berkut! Look who I found wandering around the camp!”

Berkut, who had been looking over his horse to make sure he hadn’t been hurt too badly in the earlier battle, looked over his shoulder at Alm’s voice, only to let out a sigh.

“Alm, have you already forgotten what Grandfather said about picking up strays?”

Alm merely grinned at his cousin’s exasperated look, adjusting his grip on the fluffy orange cat that was purring away in his arms.

“I know, I know, but she’s such a sweetheart, she came right up to me!” Alm chuckled, looking down at the cat fondly, “Doesn’t she remind you of Purrscilla?”

The tiny kitten from their childhood had managed to slip under Mycen’s watch for a full three days, before she snuck out of Celica’s room and curled up in Mycen’s lapping, sending the poor man into a sneezing frenzy. Berkut, Alm, and Celica were lectured thoroughly that day, and little Purrscilla was given away to another family in the village.

“I still can’t believe we went with your stupid name back then.”

“Excuse me for wanting to have some fun with names!” Alm countered, before talking to the cat, “He’s such a killjoy.”

Berkut rolled his eyes, patting his horse and bringing him back over to the other horses before approaching Alm. The cat purred louder as Berkut gently scratched her under the chin.

“You better not try to take her with us,” Berkut warned Alm, seeing how attached his cousin was getting.

“I won’t, I’m not a fool,” Alm sighed, “I’ll let Clawrine go after dinner.”

“…Clawrine?” Berkut repeated.

“Well, it was either Clawrine or Pawrissa. And she looks like a Clawrine, doesn’t she?”

“Alm, I swear…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Alm, you won’t believe this!”

Alm, who had been busy trying to feed the family sheep, and getting his clothes gnawed at for all his efforts, looked over where Tobin had yelled. He smiled as he saw Gray and Tobin dragging Berkut towards him, Kliff and Faye following close behind. Oh, he couldn’t wait to hear what this was about…

“Berry here got his very first confession!” Gray laughed once the group reached Alm.

“Confession?” Alm repeated, surprised and amused as a red-faced Berkut refused to look at him, “As in a love confession?”

“It was that cute girl who works in the tavern,” Tobin explained despite the death glare Berkut was giving him, “You should’ve seen it Alm, it was like something out of one of my sisters’ fairytales!”

“You could practically see the hearts in her eyes while she confessed,” Faye giggled, “It was rather adorable!”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Berkut muttered, “Besides, I turned her down.”

“And made her cry,” Kliff added.

“You made her cry?” Alm asked disappointedly.

“Not on purpose!” Berkut insisted, “I just told her I wasn’t interested and that it’d be in her best interest to find another, then she ran off crying.”

“Yeah, well, I’d stay away from the public eye for a while, Berry,” Gray snickered, “Her father’s gonna kick your butt when he hears you made his little girl cry.”

“It wasn’t on purpose!”

Alm, seeing Berkut’s face growing increasingly red from a mixture of embarrassment and anger, decided to come to his cousin’s rescue.

“Like what happened between you and the older sister of that girl you turned down last month, Gray?”

The group went dead silent at Alm’s words, only for everyone to turn to look at Gray, who was frozen in place.

“Wait a second,” Kliff began, fighting a smile, “That broken nose you had last month…Don’t tell me…”

“Ohh, do tell us more, Alm,” Berkut said teasingly, as the others tried and failed to fight off laughs.

“Alm, you’re dead to me,” Gray grumbled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rinea was truly a vision, with her long hair as blue as the sky and those warm, gentle eyes. Her sincere kindness, her willingness to put her life on the line to heal, to try and save her family from destitution, the way she smiled and laughed, the way she got him to open up to her.

Berkut had accepted it a while ago…He was in love.

“Rinea’s nice, isn’t she?”

Berkut startled for a moment. He had been so focused on watching Rinea, who was in the middle of a discussion of healing methods with Silque and Faye, that he hadn’t noticed his cousin approach him.

“Ah, sorry, Alm, I was distracted,” Berkut said, “What was that about Rinea?”

“I was saying that she’s really nice,” Alm said, “Kind, dependable, shy but she tries hard. And she’s amazing in battle. Did you see her take down that Terror that was about to get me back at the shrine? Incredible!”

Alm’s eyes twinkled in admiration as he looked over at Rinea. Berkut couldn’t help but feel pride coursing through him, even though Rinea was the one being praised. But, intermingled with that pride, was worry.

It was just admiration in Alm’s eyes, right? Alm’s affections laid toward Celica, Berkut was certain of that. Just because Rinea was so easy to love, so incredible and wonderful, that didn’t mean Alm felt anything for her other than respect. And even if he did, it couldn’t match Berkut’s own feelings. It could never match the depth of what Berkut felt. Alm could never match Berkut, he never could when they were children, it should be the same now. So why? Why was he falling behind?!

“Berkut?”

Alm’s voice was the trigger that brought Berkut back, making him remember where he was. He saw the troubled expression on Alm’s face.

“You did it again,” Alm said worriedly, searching Berkut’s face, “For the past few weeks, there are these moments where you become dead to the world…What’s wrong?”

What was wrong? It’s true, he kept having moments where his vision would narrow, where his mind would go all over the face, bringing up thoughts he never knew he had, feelings he never knew he could experience so strongly. It started with his first encounter with one of those Duma Faithful members…During the last encounter, he confronted the bastard, demanding to know what spell had been cast on him that put such thoughts in his head. And what had that person replied?

“Nothing has been planted in your mind…Those thoughts were always there, buried deep in your soul…”

“It’s nothing,” Berkut told Alm, although he knew very well that wasn’t true and Alm certainly didn’t look convinced, “I’m alright, Alm.”

“…You don’t talk to me anymore, Berkut…not like before,” Alm muttered, “Are you really alright? Or is it something you don’t want to tell me?”

“…It’s nothing that concerns you, cousin,” Berkut was beginning to feel irritated at Alm’s prying.

Alm looked as though he wanted to argue further, but thought better of it. The pair stood in silence as the cold but strangely familiar Rigelian air played with their hair.

“I know I’m busy with the Deliverance,” Alm said after a while, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t talk like we always did before…You can rely on me, Berkut.”

“Because we’re family,” Berkut responded, although the affection in those words seemed dulled, “You can rely on me as well. Such as relying on my ability to know if something is wrong with me or not.”

“I rely more on your damn stubbornness,” Alm snapped back, “Ugh, sorry, I don’t wanna fight. Not when this is the first chance we had to properly talk in a while.”

“I know…But it’s getting late, we can talk another time.”

Berkut took one last glance at Rinea before nodding to Alm and walking off.

“Berkut.”

He paused, although he didn’t turn back to look at his cousin.

“Rinea worries about you too…If you won’t ease my worries, at least ease hers…”

He heard Alm walk off, but he still didn’t turn around. He was alright. He was certain of that. These thoughts that plagued him, they were nothing he couldn’t handle. He was strong after all. He would get through this on his own.

And when he did, he would face Alm and Rinea properly…

[loyallogic]

Soldiers of Justice

This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

What kind of lawyer do you want to be?

Have you thought about it? Rich? Successful? Ruthless? Generous? Working in a big law firm or a top company? Helping people at grassroots?

Before we jump into that let’s take an honest look at what people think of the legal profession today.

Tiger < Police < Lawyer

In India, ask a common man, and he will tell you that he is scared of going to a lawyer. It’s very expensive, rarely produces good results and is a very stressful experience overall.

Lawyers often treat their clients in a way that bureaucracy does. If they are successful then they behave like demigods.

In my native language, there is a saying “Baghe chnule 12 gha, police chnule 18 gha aar ukile chnule 36 gha.”  it means if a tiger touches you, you get 12 wounds. If a policeman touches you, you will get 18 wounds. If a lawyer touches you, you will get 36 wounds.

Wow. Think about that.

I mentioned this to Tanuj Kalia of Lawctopus, and he told me about a Punjabi saying which basically means that nobody should be unfortunate enough to see the insides of a hospital or a court.

So that’s the kind of reputation the legal profession has earned.

The people do not think that the court is a temple of justice. They feel that it is the place where justice is delayed and buried under files.

Lawyers may feel that they are proud officers of the court, but the common man compares us with vultures, jackals etc unflattering animals.

Uncharitable things about lawyers are part of our national folklore.

And lawyers pretend to themselves that they are part of a noble profession.

Do you take pride in being a lawyer?

I do not feel proud to call myself a lawyer at times when I see that a large number of people in this country have no access to justice. Forget the poor and the destitute, even rich people who can afford lawyers’ fees, do not always get legal services of reasonable quality!

We have a pathetic bar exam. It is open book but does not test conceptual knowledge. It literally checks if you are smart enough to open bare acts and find specific sections mentioned in the questions themselves. It is a joke. I once asked a couple of graduate non-lawyer friends to take the bar exam (I gave them the paper and asked them to solve). They scored 50% without even requiring law books, in one hour only. If someone does a large scale testing of this nature, it will be proven that one does not have to be a lawyer or complete legal education to crack the bar exam.

Even CLAT, which is only for entrance to NLUs, is much tougher than the India bar exam! The bar exam only exists to fill up the coffers of BCI.

It is a fraud on all Indians, all litigants and especially on the capable lawyers. Why can’t we have a decent bar exam like other civilised countries, such as USA, UK or Japan? Why are people who do not have sufficient legal knowledge given a license to practice? Is the BCI doing any favours to these lawyers? I don’t think so.

BCI has completely failed to maintain the quality of the profession. And year after year, thousands of lawyers with little capabilities or knowledge are inflating the ranks of lawyers in this country and ruining the reputation of the legal profession even further.

Majority of lawyers are not in a good place either

Lawyers themselves are suffering. Most of them have no idea about how to run law practices, how to find clients, how to brand themselves, how to learn new and useful skills.

Continuous legal education in India is a farce. Some law schools get decent grants in name of continuing legal education but the courses are of such low calibre and low quality that nobody in their right mind will pay for such courses. People attend these for free food, stay, networking with the big names who come to these events to teach.

Judges and well-known lawyers give stream of consciousness lectures in these programs held at prestigious universities and think that they are doing a great job. Professors use these events to network with judges and politically influential lawyers. Everybody pat each other in the back but the end result is that lawyers have no avenue to actually upgrade their skills, knowledge, market insights (this is a place our LawSikho is nicely filling up, so I will not pretend that I am not glad at some level that the universities are so bad at it).

When you can’t make a living through honest means, can I blame you if you turn to shady practices to make ends meet?

A large number of so called qualified lawyers do not have adequate skills to practice law or to assist clients in getting justice. Many do not earn enough by honest means, so resort to manipulation of clients or even acting as touts or agents for more established lawyers.

Those who cannot find it in their conscience to do such things often have to leave the legal profession and do menial jobs. My friend Raghul Sudheesh wrote a heart breaking account about this over here.

Who and what do we look up to?

What do you hear if you ask young law students about why they want to do law? Yes, there is somewhere a hidden wish to do good and bring justice in the world, but that is far outweighed by their want to be rich. That’s what is dominating the conversations around legal profession today, and that is what is attracting people to it.

The new generation of lawyers do not have idols to follow today. Young lawyers are now suspicious of even judiciary, that it is partisan, some of it being corrupt, trying to get cushy post-retirement positions and ensure arbitrator appointments in the future. Senior lawyers are obscenely rich and powerful but most of them do not treat juniors well. They are not really the inspirational figures that will inspire young lawyers to rise above the ordinary and give selflessly to society. There are some inspiring law teachers, but they are few and far between.

What is the future of our noble profession? How will this decline be arrested?

I am sure there are plenty of lawyers out there who do not think there is any problem at all and that everything is going great. But I don’t agree. The decay and the stench of rottenness are difficult to ignore anymore.

A lawyer cannot hold his head high today just because he is a lawyer and part of a noble profession unless they are deluding themselves.

It is not that there is enough work, or that no lawyer is doing a good job, or that lawyers are not paid well. The problem is on one hand of access to skill development, and on the other hand of distrust by the public which is a part of the larger image problem of the profession.

Market failure, and what could be possible

Not only are lawyers suffering, but even the common people are also suffering.

What an irony! A typical case of market failure.

There is demand, there is supply, theoretically, there is a market and it should work out. But it is not working out. Demand and supply are not able to converge due to macro-level deficiencies in the system.

What could be possible if the lawyers who are not able to eke out a decent living could actually deliver on client mandates based on their skills?

What if the general public with a problem could trust a lawyer and turn to them at the times of difficulties knowing that they are approaching a humane, highly capable, fair and just problem solver?

It would change not only the legal profession but our country forever.

Justice will be truly accessible. We can then finally call us a truly civilised nation.

Otherwise, we will continue to live in a country where people think it’s better to settle a dispute with fistfights or show of might and influence rather than taking it to the court or before an arbitrator.

But that’s not going to happen by default. There are people with vested interests for whom the current system works great.

Time for action

Nobody is going to come on a white horse and save us.

We have to take the initiative. You know how bad the situation is if you are a young lawyer. I have faith in you. You and I can change it together.

Enough is enough. We must start somewhere. Even a small step in the right direction opens up millions of new possibilities rather than a thousand years of hand wringing and dry speeches from hallowed podiums.

We must create a new order of lawyers, who live by some well recognised principles and serve the cause of justice.

A new breed of lawyers, who stand for an idea

The Soldiers of Justice. A movement. A new kind of lawyer. A new identity.

I want to be able to hold my head high and say that I am not just a lawyer, but I am a Soldier of Justice.

I want the next generation of lawyers to aspire to be a Soldier of Justice, rather than just a lawyer earning a lot of money.

I want that a poor client should be able to trust a Soldier of Justice and know that a Soldier of Justice will never betray him.

A Soldier of Justice must possess some qualities that set him apart. He is ready to make personal sacrifices to win the war against injustice.

Here are the qualities I have thought of:

Integrity

Competence

Continuous self-development and introspection

Superior communication skills

Service to the people and to humanity

Allegiance to justice

Commitment to a principled practice of law

A strong public persona in his/her community

But you know what? I don’t know. It is still an idea inside my head. It inspires me. Does it inspire you? Do you think it’s worth making the time and effort to create a new order of lawyers?

I am thinking about a community which will accept only the lawyers who have these qualities and help other lawyers to cultivate these qualities. They would have to do some minimal work to stay a part of this community, such as minimum pro bono commitments, community outreach, personal brand building exercises, continuing education.

We would expel people who fail to uphold community standards. We will keep the bar very high. So high that one would be proud to be part of this. And will consider joining it and being able to continue as a part of it as a matter of great achievement and honour. And their work will inspire the larger legal community to up their standards as well.

What do I want from you?

I shared this idea with you hoping to get your thoughts on this. Please take out 10 minutes to think about the idea Soldiers of Justice and share your inputs in reply. It will help me to think things through and take the initial steps towards building this community of extraordinary lawyers who stand for justice.

The time for this idea is certainly here. Would you want to be a part of it? What do you think it should be like? What should be the rules of the community? What activities should be there? Should there be weekly mentoring sessions? Should there be monthly meetups citywise?

How do we select the initial set of Soldiers of Justice?

How should we go about this?

While I envision that Soldiers of Justice will always be a movement and have no profit motives, I will begin to implement some of the precepts into LawSikho courses, especially the parts on competence, integrity, communication, and building a strong public persona.

It is up to us to make the legal profession great again. You will hear more from me about this soon again, I promise.

Before I close this, just let me tell you that we have a few courses coming up in February (Gareema and Ratul will kill me if I didn’t mention that):

Diploma

Diploma in Industrial and Labour Laws 

Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations 

Executive Certificate Course

Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws 

Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting 

The post Soldiers of Justice appeared first on iPleaders.

Soldiers of Justice published first on https://namechangers.tumblr.com/

[juudgeblog]

Soldiers of Justice

This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

What kind of lawyer do you want to be?

Have you thought about it? Rich? Successful? Ruthless? Generous? Working in a big law firm or a top company? Helping people at grassroots?

Before we jump into that let’s take an honest look at what people think of the legal profession today.

Tiger < Police < Lawyer

In India, ask a common man, and he will tell you that he is scared of going to a lawyer. It’s very expensive, rarely produces good results and is a very stressful experience overall.

Lawyers often treat their clients in a way that bureaucracy does. If they are successful then they behave like demigods.

In my native language, there is a saying “Baghe chnule 12 gha, police chnule 18 gha aar ukile chnule 36 gha.”  it means if a tiger touches you, you get 12 wounds. If a policeman touches you, you will get 18 wounds. If a lawyer touches you, you will get 36 wounds.

Wow. Think about that.

I mentioned this to Tanuj Kalia of Lawctopus, and he told me about a Punjabi saying which basically means that nobody should be unfortunate enough to see the insides of a hospital or a court.

So that’s the kind of reputation the legal profession has earned.

The people do not think that the court is a temple of justice. They feel that it is the place where justice is delayed and buried under files.

Lawyers may feel that they are proud officers of the court, but the common man compares us with vultures, jackals etc unflattering animals.

Uncharitable things about lawyers are part of our national folklore.

And lawyers pretend to themselves that they are part of a noble profession.

Do you take pride in being a lawyer?

I do not feel proud to call myself a lawyer at times when I see that a large number of people in this country have no access to justice. Forget the poor and the destitute, even rich people who can afford lawyers’ fees, do not always get legal services of reasonable quality!

We have a pathetic bar exam. It is open book but does not test conceptual knowledge. It literally checks if you are smart enough to open bare acts and find specific sections mentioned in the questions themselves. It is a joke. I once asked a couple of graduate non-lawyer friends to take the bar exam (I gave them the paper and asked them to solve). They scored 50% without even requiring law books, in one hour only. If someone does a large scale testing of this nature, it will be proven that one does not have to be a lawyer or complete legal education to crack the bar exam.

Even CLAT, which is only for entrance to NLUs, is much tougher than the India bar exam! The bar exam only exists to fill up the coffers of BCI.

It is a fraud on all Indians, all litigants and especially on the capable lawyers. Why can’t we have a decent bar exam like other civilised countries, such as USA, UK or Japan? Why are people who do not have sufficient legal knowledge given a license to practice? Is the BCI doing any favours to these lawyers? I don’t think so.

BCI has completely failed to maintain the quality of the profession. And year after year, thousands of lawyers with little capabilities or knowledge are inflating the ranks of lawyers in this country and ruining the reputation of the legal profession even further.

Majority of lawyers are not in a good place either

Lawyers themselves are suffering. Most of them have no idea about how to run law practices, how to find clients, how to brand themselves, how to learn new and useful skills.

Continuous legal education in India is a farce. Some law schools get decent grants in name of continuing legal education but the courses are of such low calibre and low quality that nobody in their right mind will pay for such courses. People attend these for free food, stay, networking with the big names who come to these events to teach.

Judges and well-known lawyers give stream of consciousness lectures in these programs held at prestigious universities and think that they are doing a great job. Professors use these events to network with judges and politically influential lawyers. Everybody pat each other in the back but the end result is that lawyers have no avenue to actually upgrade their skills, knowledge, market insights (this is a place our LawSikho is nicely filling up, so I will not pretend that I am not glad at some level that the universities are so bad at it).

When you can’t make a living through honest means, can I blame you if you turn to shady practices to make ends meet?

A large number of so called qualified lawyers do not have adequate skills to practice law or to assist clients in getting justice. Many do not earn enough by honest means, so resort to manipulation of clients or even acting as touts or agents for more established lawyers.

Those who cannot find it in their conscience to do such things often have to leave the legal profession and do menial jobs. My friend Raghul Sudheesh wrote a heart breaking account about this over here.

Who and what do we look up to?

What do you hear if you ask young law students about why they want to do law? Yes, there is somewhere a hidden wish to do good and bring justice in the world, but that is far outweighed by their want to be rich. That’s what is dominating the conversations around legal profession today, and that is what is attracting people to it.

The new generation of lawyers do not have idols to follow today. Young lawyers are now suspicious of even judiciary, that it is partisan, some of it being corrupt, trying to get cushy post-retirement positions and ensure arbitrator appointments in the future. Senior lawyers are obscenely rich and powerful but most of them do not treat juniors well. They are not really the inspirational figures that will inspire young lawyers to rise above the ordinary and give selflessly to society. There are some inspiring law teachers, but they are few and far between.

What is the future of our noble profession? How will this decline be arrested?

I am sure there are plenty of lawyers out there who do not think there is any problem at all and that everything is going great. But I don’t agree. The decay and the stench of rottenness are difficult to ignore anymore.

A lawyer cannot hold his head high today just because he is a lawyer and part of a noble profession unless they are deluding themselves.

It is not that there is enough work, or that no lawyer is doing a good job, or that lawyers are not paid well. The problem is on one hand of access to skill development, and on the other hand of distrust by the public which is a part of the larger image problem of the profession.

Market failure, and what could be possible

Not only are lawyers suffering, but even the common people are also suffering.

What an irony! A typical case of market failure.

There is demand, there is supply, theoretically, there is a market and it should work out. But it is not working out. Demand and supply are not able to converge due to macro-level deficiencies in the system.

What could be possible if the lawyers who are not able to eke out a decent living could actually deliver on client mandates based on their skills?

What if the general public with a problem could trust a lawyer and turn to them at the times of difficulties knowing that they are approaching a humane, highly capable, fair and just problem solver?

It would change not only the legal profession but our country forever.

Justice will be truly accessible. We can then finally call us a truly civilised nation.

Otherwise, we will continue to live in a country where people think it’s better to settle a dispute with fistfights or show of might and influence rather than taking it to the court or before an arbitrator.

But that’s not going to happen by default. There are people with vested interests for whom the current system works great.

Time for action

Nobody is going to come on a white horse and save us.

We have to take the initiative. You know how bad the situation is if you are a young lawyer. I have faith in you. You and I can change it together.

Enough is enough. We must start somewhere. Even a small step in the right direction opens up millions of new possibilities rather than a thousand years of hand wringing and dry speeches from hallowed podiums.

We must create a new order of lawyers, who live by some well recognised principles and serve the cause of justice.

A new breed of lawyers, who stand for an idea

The Soldiers of Justice. A movement. A new kind of lawyer. A new identity.

I want to be able to hold my head high and say that I am not just a lawyer, but I am a Soldier of Justice.

I want the next generation of lawyers to aspire to be a Soldier of Justice, rather than just a lawyer earning a lot of money.

I want that a poor client should be able to trust a Soldier of Justice and know that a Soldier of Justice will never betray him.

A Soldier of Justice must possess some qualities that set him apart. He is ready to make personal sacrifices to win the war against injustice.

Here are the qualities I have thought of:

Integrity

Competence

Continuous self-development and introspection

Superior communication skills

Service to the people and to humanity

Allegiance to justice

Commitment to a principled practice of law

A strong public persona in his/her community

But you know what? I don’t know. It is still an idea inside my head. It inspires me. Does it inspire you? Do you think it’s worth making the time and effort to create a new order of lawyers?

I am thinking about a community which will accept only the lawyers who have these qualities and help other lawyers to cultivate these qualities. They would have to do some minimal work to stay a part of this community, such as minimum pro bono commitments, community outreach, personal brand building exercises, continuing education.

We would expel people who fail to uphold community standards. We will keep the bar very high. So high that one would be proud to be part of this. And will consider joining it and being able to continue as a part of it as a matter of great achievement and honour. And their work will inspire the larger legal community to up their standards as well.

What do I want from you?

I shared this idea with you hoping to get your thoughts on this. Please take out 10 minutes to think about the idea Soldiers of Justice and share your inputs in reply. It will help me to think things through and take the initial steps towards building this community of extraordinary lawyers who stand for justice.

The time for this idea is certainly here. Would you want to be a part of it? What do you think it should be like? What should be the rules of the community? What activities should be there? Should there be weekly mentoring sessions? Should there be monthly meetups citywise?

How do we select the initial set of Soldiers of Justice?

How should we go about this?

While I envision that Soldiers of Justice will always be a movement and have no profit motives, I will begin to implement some of the precepts into LawSikho courses, especially the parts on competence, integrity, communication, and building a strong public persona.

It is up to us to make the legal profession great again. You will hear more from me about this soon again, I promise.

Before I close this, just let me tell you that we have a few courses coming up in February (Gareema and Ratul will kill me if I didn’t mention that):

Diploma

Diploma in Industrial and Labour Laws 

Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations 

Executive Certificate Course

Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws 

Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting 

The post Soldiers of Justice appeared first on iPleaders.

Soldiers of Justice syndicated from https://namechangersmumbai.wordpress.com/

[alexsmitposts]

Is It Time to Move the World Economic Forum to Some Far Away Place? It’s official. Nobody on Earth knows what to believe anymore. At the United Nations (UN) experts say we’re on a collision course with climate disaster. In Washington D.C. the news is just Looney Tunes. In Britain, experts ramp up their claims Vladimir Putin’s popularity is failing – again. But the ridiculous report I’ve read in the last two years comes from the World Economic Forum (WEF). Read on and be amazed. The same people who have spent the last few decades stealing the legacy of humanity have cooked up a new fairy tale with “everyman” as the hero. A few days ago the Swiss NGO proclaimed that “Half the World is Now Middle Class or Wealthier.” While this sinks into your psyche, let me cite the lead of their report: “Something of enormous global significance is happening almost without notice. For the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty.” That’s right, according to the 1% business, banking, and political leaders that run the WEF there are currently 3.85 billion burbs driving around to the mall in Chevrolets, in case you haven’t noticed. Now let me help you understand the kind of lunatics were are dealing with way up yonder in Switzerland. This new claim by the rocket scientist economists at WEF is based on some really stupid math. For instance, according to these elitist nincompoops, middle-class people spend in between $11 and $110 dollars per day on essentials. So, a family with something around $330 dollars a month to buy food, etc. is able to “weather economic shocks,” take vacations and buy refrigerators. The fact these goofuses lumped the destitute of most developed countries in with people eating filet mignon for breakfast ($110 a day is ten times $11?) is a form of economics retardation for me. It’s like everybody who ever went to Davos has a reality disability. Forgive me here, but I find it fascinating that the Swiss yodelers of world sustainability and economic health are citing the same Bill & Melinda Gates report I bashed in an earlier article. Let me quote the WEF story again: “A lot has been written about the world’s progress in reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty, as highlighted in the recent Goalkeepers report put out by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” What a load of malarkey. U.S. President Donald Trump stands up in front of the world and denies a UN report there are millions of destitute Americans. He goes on to say our country only has 250,000 people suffering “real” poverty, and that the UN should be ashamed of itself. Meanwhile, he and his elite brethren wreck American environmental protections and line their own pockets as usual. The world is almost out of the economic woods. Shangri La is right around the corner now, they assure us. Meanwhile, our sons and daughters work for wages that will deliver them subsistence and a movie once a month. But across most of Europe, Asia, and Latin America the “middle class” cannot even afford to pay attention. Here in Greece, the work week is 70+ hours, or you don’t eat. In Ukraine or Romania “middle class” means struggle to pay the electric bill. I won’t address these psychopaths’ ideas on financial Nirvana in Equator or Peru. All I can say is they had better pray to God the World Economic Forum does not move to Managua, Nicaragua, the poorest country in Latin America. We’d never have to worry about Bill Gates or the rest of the “global shapers” ever again. Hey, this gives me a brilliant idea. If we move them all to the worst place on Earth to let them lie their pants off, our economic crises will probably come to an abrupt end. Look at the “genius” Bill Gates woos the WEF with. The guy sounds like the dumbest flimflam man ever. When the WEF minions asked Gates what he knows this year that he didn’t last year, here’s how the zillionaire responded: “The understanding of how important nutrition is has been rising. But I’d say in the last year, the breadth of that recognition has gone up quite a bit, and that’s at several levels.” This is the best the 1% has to offer. With billions of people in big trouble around the world, Bill Gates’ genius progress hinges on people understanding starvation are bad. It’s as if the man does not even take the time to “bless” us with a decent answer. Wow, are we in trouble. Gates goes on to educate us about kids being the most vulnerable to death if they don’t get on the right “growth path.” The co-founder of the world’s biggest software company is churning databases to figure out good nutrition for kids is a good thing. Meanwhile, his colleagues in the Swiss Alps are using a bullhorn to tell us we are AOK, and not to worry about a thing. I will stop worrying when Gates and the rest are in prison or transported to another planet by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket. How about you?

[loyallogic]

Soldiers of Justice

This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

What kind of lawyer do you want to be?

Have you thought about it? Rich? Successful? Ruthless? Generous? Working in a big law firm or a top company? Helping people at grassroots?

Before we jump into that let’s take an honest look at what people think of the legal profession today.

Tiger < Police < Lawyer

In India, ask a common man, and he will tell you that he is scared of going to a lawyer. It’s very expensive, rarely produces good results and is a very stressful experience overall.

Lawyers often treat their clients in a way that bureaucracy does. If they are successful then they behave like demigods.

In my native language, there is a saying “Baghe chnule 12 gha, police chnule 18 gha aar ukile chnule 36 gha.”  it means if a tiger touches you, you get 12 wounds. If a policeman touches you, you will get 18 wounds. If a lawyer touches you, you will get 36 wounds.

Wow. Think about that.

I mentioned this to Tanuj Kalia of Lawctopus, and he told me about a Punjabi saying which basically means that nobody should be unfortunate enough to see the insides of a hospital or a court.

So that’s the kind of reputation the legal profession has earned.

The people do not think that the court is a temple of justice. They feel that it is the place where justice is delayed and buried under files.

Lawyers may feel that they are proud officers of the court, but the common man compares us with vultures, jackals etc unflattering animals.

Uncharitable things about lawyers are part of our national folklore.

And lawyers pretend to themselves that they are part of a noble profession.

Do you take pride in being a lawyer?

I do not feel proud to call myself a lawyer at times when I see that a large number of people in this country have no access to justice. Forget the poor and the destitute, even rich people who can afford lawyers’ fees, do not always get legal services of reasonable quality!

We have a pathetic bar exam. It is open book but does not test conceptual knowledge. It literally checks if you are smart enough to open bare acts and find specific sections mentioned in the questions themselves. It is a joke. I once asked a couple of graduate non-lawyer friends to take the bar exam (I gave them the paper and asked them to solve). They scored 50% without even requiring law books, in one hour only. If someone does a large scale testing of this nature, it will be proven that one does not have to be a lawyer or complete legal education to crack the bar exam.

Even CLAT, which is only for entrance to NLUs, is much tougher than the India bar exam! The bar exam only exists to fill up the coffers of BCI.

It is a fraud on all Indians, all litigants and especially on the capable lawyers. Why can’t we have a decent bar exam like other civilised countries, such as USA, UK or Japan? Why are people who do not have sufficient legal knowledge given a license to practice? Is the BCI doing any favours to these lawyers? I don’t think so.

BCI has completely failed to maintain the quality of the profession. And year after year, thousands of lawyers with little capabilities or knowledge are inflating the ranks of lawyers in this country and ruining the reputation of the legal profession even further.

Majority of lawyers are not in a good place either

Lawyers themselves are suffering. Most of them have no idea about how to run law practices, how to find clients, how to brand themselves, how to learn new and useful skills.

Continuous legal education in India is a farce. Some law schools get decent grants in name of continuing legal education but the courses are of such low calibre and low quality that nobody in their right mind will pay for such courses. People attend these for free food, stay, networking with the big names who come to these events to teach.

Judges and well-known lawyers give stream of consciousness lectures in these programs held at prestigious universities and think that they are doing a great job. Professors use these events to network with judges and politically influential lawyers. Everybody pat each other in the back but the end result is that lawyers have no avenue to actually upgrade their skills, knowledge, market insights (this is a place our LawSikho is nicely filling up, so I will not pretend that I am not glad at some level that the universities are so bad at it).

When you can’t make a living through honest means, can I blame you if you turn to shady practices to make ends meet?

A large number of so called qualified lawyers do not have adequate skills to practice law or to assist clients in getting justice. Many do not earn enough by honest means, so resort to manipulation of clients or even acting as touts or agents for more established lawyers.

Those who cannot find it in their conscience to do such things often have to leave the legal profession and do menial jobs. My friend Raghul Sudheesh wrote a heart breaking account about this over here.

Who and what do we look up to?

What do you hear if you ask young law students about why they want to do law? Yes, there is somewhere a hidden wish to do good and bring justice in the world, but that is far outweighed by their want to be rich. That’s what is dominating the conversations around legal profession today, and that is what is attracting people to it.

The new generation of lawyers do not have idols to follow today. Young lawyers are now suspicious of even judiciary, that it is partisan, some of it being corrupt, trying to get cushy post-retirement positions and ensure arbitrator appointments in the future. Senior lawyers are obscenely rich and powerful but most of them do not treat juniors well. They are not really the inspirational figures that will inspire young lawyers to rise above the ordinary and give selflessly to society. There are some inspiring law teachers, but they are few and far between.

What is the future of our noble profession? How will this decline be arrested?

I am sure there are plenty of lawyers out there who do not think there is any problem at all and that everything is going great. But I don’t agree. The decay and the stench of rottenness are difficult to ignore anymore.

A lawyer cannot hold his head high today just because he is a lawyer and part of a noble profession unless they are deluding themselves.

It is not that there is enough work, or that no lawyer is doing a good job, or that lawyers are not paid well. The problem is on one hand of access to skill development, and on the other hand of distrust by the public which is a part of the larger image problem of the profession.

Market failure, and what could be possible

Not only are lawyers suffering, but even the common people are also suffering.

What an irony! A typical case of market failure.

There is demand, there is supply, theoretically, there is a market and it should work out. But it is not working out. Demand and supply are not able to converge due to macro-level deficiencies in the system.

What could be possible if the lawyers who are not able to eke out a decent living could actually deliver on client mandates based on their skills?

What if the general public with a problem could trust a lawyer and turn to them at the times of difficulties knowing that they are approaching a humane, highly capable, fair and just problem solver?

It would change not only the legal profession but our country forever.

Justice will be truly accessible. We can then finally call us a truly civilised nation.

Otherwise, we will continue to live in a country where people think it’s better to settle a dispute with fistfights or show of might and influence rather than taking it to the court or before an arbitrator.

But that’s not going to happen by default. There are people with vested interests for whom the current system works great.

Time for action

Nobody is going to come on a white horse and save us.

We have to take the initiative. You know how bad the situation is if you are a young lawyer. I have faith in you. You and I can change it together.

Enough is enough. We must start somewhere. Even a small step in the right direction opens up millions of new possibilities rather than a thousand years of hand wringing and dry speeches from hallowed podiums.

We must create a new order of lawyers, who live by some well recognised principles and serve the cause of justice.

A new breed of lawyers, who stand for an idea

The Soldiers of Justice. A movement. A new kind of lawyer. A new identity.

I want to be able to hold my head high and say that I am not just a lawyer, but I am a Soldier of Justice.

I want the next generation of lawyers to aspire to be a Soldier of Justice, rather than just a lawyer earning a lot of money.

I want that a poor client should be able to trust a Soldier of Justice and know that a Soldier of Justice will never betray him.

A Soldier of Justice must possess some qualities that set him apart. He is ready to make personal sacrifices to win the war against injustice.

Here are the qualities I have thought of:

Integrity

Competence

Continuous self-development and introspection

Superior communication skills

Service to the people and to humanity

Allegiance to justice

Commitment to a principled practice of law

A strong public persona in his/her community

But you know what? I don’t know. It is still an idea inside my head. It inspires me. Does it inspire you? Do you think it’s worth making the time and effort to create a new order of lawyers?

I am thinking about a community which will accept only the lawyers who have these qualities and help other lawyers to cultivate these qualities. They would have to do some minimal work to stay a part of this community, such as minimum pro bono commitments, community outreach, personal brand building exercises, continuing education.

We would expel people who fail to uphold community standards. We will keep the bar very high. So high that one would be proud to be part of this. And will consider joining it and being able to continue as a part of it as a matter of great achievement and honour. And their work will inspire the larger legal community to up their standards as well.

What do I want from you?

I shared this idea with you hoping to get your thoughts on this. Please take out 10 minutes to think about the idea Soldiers of Justice and share your inputs in reply. It will help me to think things through and take the initial steps towards building this community of extraordinary lawyers who stand for justice.

The time for this idea is certainly here. Would you want to be a part of it? What do you think it should be like? What should be the rules of the community? What activities should be there? Should there be weekly mentoring sessions? Should there be monthly meetups citywise?

How do we select the initial set of Soldiers of Justice?

How should we go about this?

While I envision that Soldiers of Justice will always be a movement and have no profit motives, I will begin to implement some of the precepts into LawSikho courses, especially the parts on competence, integrity, communication, and building a strong public persona.

It is up to us to make the legal profession great again. You will hear more from me about this soon again, I promise.

Before I close this, just let me tell you that we have a few courses coming up in February (Gareema and Ratul will kill me if I didn’t mention that):

Diploma

Diploma in Industrial and Labour Laws 

Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations 

Executive Certificate Course

Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws 

Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting 

The post Soldiers of Justice appeared first on iPleaders.

Soldiers of Justice published first on https://namechangers.tumblr.com/