Adventures at the Sindh Courts

This blog is a diary, recording some of the going ons in the litigation world of Karachi.

[boundsofjustice]

I envisage a problem

Lady leech is going to transform herself into a long standing irksome pain- this I forsee.

So far, I had the good fortune of not being forced into an interaction with her since the churidaar pajama incident. I continued to see her around the courts but was able to avoid interaction. True to her leechy nature, she must find it difficult to restrain herself from being an annoying pest, I suppose, and so it was that todays incident came to happen.

Let me put it kindly first: I loathe and detest the woman

Now for the dirty details.. I was innocently sitting in the bar room (big mistake: NEVER ever sit in the bar room if you can avoid it) engrossed reading. Two other women were sitting on my left happily chatting. On my right, there was a bunch of man-advocates excitedly discussing mundane politics. Time was passing without undue trouble, when all of a sudden, lady leech came along with another similarly middle aged lady and shreiked at me: "tum to itni patli ho thora udhar ho kar beth jao!" and then proceeded to seat herself on my dress.

No "hello", no "pardon me", no politely saying, "the bar room is quite crowded, do you mind shifting along?", nope. Just storm into my personal space, make my body the centre of attention, and then forcibly place your bottom upon my clothing... Why don't you? Who am I to mind. After all, I am thin???!!!

I stared from one middle aged lady to the next for a few moments.. They only came our way because we were three (younger) women sitting near each other and they easily felt that they could bully us, because you know how it goes in Pakistan- "They are our seniors" and so they can be as obnoxious as they please and we are not entitled to complain. But also because they are strange women who want to assert their self proclaimed authority in as misogynist a fashion as possible. I can bet they would never have come near us if we were similarly aged boys, or if they were men.

I budged over slightly, as much as was possible under the circumstance of her sitting upon my clothing, and then her shrill voice and ugly teeth appeared from behind her gaping grin. I'm not really sure what she was wailing about by then, but I was so well and truly repulsed, that I decided to leave. I walked away feeling like my marrow had been poisoned.

So, sure, I hold a grudge against the leech. I will be the first to admit this. I feel she aspires to be an aunty version of "mean girls" at the Court. But you know that thought process doesn't  make much sense in high school, this is a good few decades later in her case! Leech's hatred for women and also herself shows in every interaction I have had with her. (admitedly only 2 so far, but I think I have her figured out). I would feel sorry for her, but mner.. 

[boundsofjustice]

Wife and kids are properties.. good to know

[boundsofjustice]

Lady Leech Strikes!

I was in Justice *One-of-the-competent-ones* court, waiting for our case to be heard. The courtroom was absolutely packed and there wasn't much space to stand or breathe, forget sitting.

So I was busily trying to watch and learn court practices, by which I really mean I was being subjected to the sound of a constant stream of "Excuse me madam" being hissed at me by men in suits as they pushed past in all directions.

At one point I turned around and spotted a woman advocate. She was fixedly staring at me. I gave her a weak smile naively thinking that it is friendly to smile. She gave me back an equally weak smile. It was so tiring standing around over there in our completely inappropriate attire (consider wearing coats in the scorching heat of late April), I thought to myself. It is too much effort to even muster a smile under these conditions. As it turned out, I was going too far with this whole smiling and friendliness nonsense. I might well have wildly misinterpreted a sneer or a confused look to be something friendly.

Anyway, I didn’t see her again for a while. By the time our suit was finally being heard, I had managed to get hold of a satisfactory location for myself to stand in, where I had a good view of both the lawyers and the judge, without being in anyone's way. 

I was in the middle of learning litigation through frenzied observation, taking in the environment and also trying to follow the arguments of both sides since it was *Mr.Boss* and his opponent arguing their cases. In an attempt to hear the advocates speak over the low pitched chaos of the room, I  perched myself a little higher by slightly stepping on the bench-platform in front of me. Just as *Mr.Boss* started speaking, is precisely the moment the leech attached herself to me and started sucking my blood. 

Oh and how painful it was!

Lady Leech was most concerned you see, about the effect I was having on the courtroom. She dove straight into a good five minute long soliloquy, about, as far as I can make out... "my dressing"

"You are wearing too much tights" 

"You were standing with one of your legs on the platform" (Yes shocking, I know, women standing in positions where their knees aren't glued together!)

"We work in an environment full of men" 

"You should do dressing in a way that looks good"

"You can wear tights if you want, but your chaak is too high" (Seriously, how much time has this creep spent staring at me?)

"You can wear shirts with no slit at the sides instead" (Can I now?)

"Please don't mind, you didn't take offense did you?" (Err.. are you kidding me lady?)

I don't like going into this woman hating stuff myself mostly because it is so unnecessary. When I first saw her, I did register in my mind that she was dressed a bit frumpy for my taste. But then, what does it matter what anyone wears or how frumpy they might be, as long as they are decent people and do whatever it is they are supposed to be doing well enough. One imagines that an advocate of the High Court would be able to successfully recognize and dismiss old fashioned misogyny. Certainly not in her case: The gist of her verbal attack seemed to be that I was dressed too, ahem... alluring/slutty. 

When she opened her mouth and started to address me, I genuinely believed she was going to ask me something sensible or even be friendly. No such luck! As soon as it became apparent to me what her chat was going to entail, I consciously laboured to appear as disgusted as possible: With one eyebrow shooting up and a crumpled brow I gathered the most pained smile I could manage on my face and thanked her for her concern and then carried on prancing my leg in a fashion that would continue to disturb the leech. At first she seemed reluctant to let go off me, but then gave up eventually.

I am still so puzzled by this encounter. First of all, why was she staring at my legs instead of doing her work? I was wearing a mass produced churi-daar pajama- which means thousands of women across the country were also wearing the same thing. This leads me to think that when she was hating on "my dressing" it wasn't really my pajama that really bothered her at all. I got the sense that there was some strange power-play thing going on where the elder woman gets to humiliate the younger, in an act of putting me in my place. 

By the time I successfully threw off the leech, *Mr.Boss & Co* were done with the case and walking out the court room. Thanks lady leech, your desire to bring me under the wing of your wisdom and experience (and I suspect, authority) caused me to waste yet another day at court!

[boundsofjustice]

On Coats at Courts

You know what i am going to say..

Why on earth does anybody think this is a good idea?

On Wednesday, i learned the meaning of sweat. An hour in the courtroom is enough to exhaust and dehydrate you for the rest of the day. I spent 4 hours there!

Of course we have the British to thank for this "tradition" that our brethren so faithfully follow.

The really sad thing is that the judiciary and bar councils of this country seems to think that you cannot look 'smart' without imitating they way colonials dress(ed). That, or they are really taking the 'sweat of the brow' idea too far.

It's not just uncomfortable, it also stinks! You walk into any courtroom which is moderately busy at the High Courts, and there is always that unmissable stench hanging in the air. A melange of body odors, with a special contribution from the advocates who have taken on the task of sweating profusely under the guises of 'looking smart' and 'tradition'.

The colonials dressed appropriate for North-Western Europe, where summer climate tend to be a bit cooler than our winters. When they came here to implant into us a colonial mindset they used their difference as an example of superiority. We very nicely believed them and continue to do so, still believing that if we dress like them we can be more 'complete' human beings. (Of course, there is a very important caveat here:  Women don't dress like European women- and definitely not like European men). They only incorporate the "phanda" otherwise known as the coat on top of a traditional white shalwaar kameez. (More on this later)

Temperatures frequently soar above the mid thirties and even hit the forties in the hot months here. Even in this unbearable heat the lawyers very nicely saunter around with their coats on thinking they exude such wisdom and authority. 

It is an absolutely diabolical dress code, born from the unfortunate inferiority complex us Pakistani's grapple with, in these days of the the colonial aftershock. There are reasons to hate it beyond just the discomfort factor, which on its own is enough to make even a sane person go mad.