And he asketh, What is Law?

On July 1st, 2006; when the LLH (with his hand on his chest) asked a class of uncertain boys and girls who all looked plain enough; but would later reveal themselves to be sex crazy fiends, incestuous innocents,dopes and drunks, and others with unwordly attributes, I told him that Law is that which has no alternative. It sounded smart then, really; especially when he smirked (I never figured why he never really liked me) and wrote TINA on the board but quite faded in comparison to what the Increasingly Irritating Iyengar had to say, from which, for the most part I remember thinking that law is that codified and exhaustive body of legislations, statutes, judicial decisions and conventions that seeks to establish an order in the society, regulate the working of the political and social organization and harmonise the common man's interaction with his counterparts and the civil bodies. That was more or less when I wrote her off. (Unless you count the time when she claimed Cogito Ergo Sum when a ragging senior asked her to introduce herself.)(WHO says that when they're gettin ragged?) I guess there are some of those in every class. Bhavin, as he claims, had one too as you can find out here.

To think of it now, I really ought to have taken to Auden.

Law like Love

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.


Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.
Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.


Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.


Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.


Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,Law has gone away.


And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.


If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it aburd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,


No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway:
Like love I say.


Like love we don’t know where or why,
Like love we can’t compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.

Wystan Hugh Auden