From the sultry heat of late Indian monsoon (36 C) to windy, rainy, foggy and cold British countryside autumn (17 C), the transition is not something to charm the heart of any tropical person, but thanks to free broadband internet and some strong heating the transition can be far less painful. However this post is not just about weather or my adaptation to it, but is a preview to a series which I seek to write on steps to secure admission and a scholarship at a British university to pursue LLM. So to test the water (hot and cold), this are my observations from my first week in UK.
The journey starts in Mumbai, where past the immigration officer the economy class passengers are herded to the jumbo Boeing 777 of Jet Airways. After walking though the aisle (in what seems like a long walk) I get settled into a quite cushy seat (with neck pillows), the food is bad (but then you are not there to eat), the entertainment system is fabulous (they got loads of the latest flicks), the overhead luggage cabins gets filled up quickly. So starts the journey with an East European captain at the helm. After 9 hours and quite a few circles over south England the plane finally lands at Heathrow. After almost an hour I reach the immigration counter, few basic questions about where I am travelling to etc. and I get the entry seal.
Few buses and 3 hours later I reach my hostel, the lady at the reception seems to have a strange accent (and so begins my encounter with the Brit accent) but after few ‘pardon’ and ‘sorry’ I collect my key and move to my rooms. I am sharing a flat with 5 other students, all PG and from 5 different countries a third generation British-Greek-Cypriot, a lanky Nigerian a French-Scottish, an Ugandan and a Chinese. So after I get settled into this multicultural, multilingual (for many it was just monolingual – hope you get the drift), multiverse, I explore out the campus which is quite different from the standard law school campus in India. First it is quite big (not every campus is as big as HNLU), its bit far from the city (not every campus is NUJS), it has got the most stupendous multimedia and IT support (not every campus is NALSAR), it has got lakes, a hillock and a mid sized forest within the campus (well as you know those Pune law colleges have got those). Thus on my first and second day while trawling through the campus I realized that given the investments made by the Brit Government in these universities, it is no wonder that they seem to have the best of all law schools in India. And this is a plate glass university not even the Oxbridge material, so if I get so much here I wonder what my colleagues in the ‘higher’ places getting.
So I am settling fast, with faculties who are the very best (unlike the Nationals where some are good, some are average and some are bad), I am sure this is also a huge difference the other thing is the approach of the university on PG studies, it is more on self learning and critical analysis rather than the exam in the end of semester kind of rigour (which unfortunately most of the Law schools in India follow even at the LLM stage, though with projects this may be no longer fully true, but with the regressive stand in some univs on projects and experimentation thereon, I do fear that this gap would only widen).
I am getting a camera soon and hopefully I would let you all know about my travails in a pictographic manner. Hope you would be around when I next start on the series. As always feel free to spam the comments tool.
