Teaching what they were taught: How CLATapult is more than just a coaching centre

By Saurabh Mishra

As a child it always used to irritate me when someone asked me what I wanted to become when I grew up. The logical desire in accordance with the language of the question was becoming a man, of course, but I understood the question as the relatives meant it.

I knew they were asking me what I wanted my profession to be, though it did not lessen the annoyance one bit. As is the tradition in the great Indian society, the frequency of such questions increases as one reaches the age of ten, it further intensifies by the age of twelve, and then we’re assured of total and absolute support of our parents with regard to anything that we want to do, provided of course, it’s in the field of engineering or medicine.

But of course, I speak of the majority. As is always the case, there are exceptions.

There are some moments when you think long and hard about some issues, which in the general scheme of things don’t affect your decisions much, but can actually shape the rest of your life if you let them.

These questions of life approach us when we’re introspecting with all our concentration and are making various personal resolutions regarding the important things in life. In other words, we all have deep thoughts in the shower, or while lying down on the bed in a futile attempt to go to sleep at the time our parents tell us to.

One of the most important questions I have ever asked myself occurred to me at one such moment in time and the ramification was, I decided to have a career in the field of law.

Once I zeroed in on what I wanted to do, the next step which followed was the how. How does law work? How does one prepare for such a career? How does one learn the ropes? How does one get into a law school to begin with? The last question to me seemed the most important as the answers to all the rest would follow once I was part of that universe. Everything works one step at a time.

The most comforting thing for me was the fact that I knew about half a dozen people who were already settled in some of the more reputed law schools in the country. So I decided I would call them up and send them emails in order to find a few answers, some tips and a lot of guidance.

In that regard I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones who have access to such help. No one can tell you more about any system than someone who is a part of that very system.

That is what fascinates me about a venture like CLATapult. I honestly feel it is bound for success simply because of what its description as per the website header is. CLAT coaching by NLU graduates.

The teachers are essentially people who have been through everything the new aspirants will have to go through, have survived everything that their institution has had to offer and have come out on top. Simply put, the training inside the classroom will comprise of much more than solving modules and taking mock tests and will in all probability, ensure that once inside, the student knows how to survive the rigours of such a competitive environment.

First things first, an interaction with such people is extremely important for those people who decide to pursue law on the basis of what they observe in sagas like Boston Legal or even better, a Bollywood courtroom drama. People need to know that what is projected of law on screen is usually an extremely small part of your journey as a lawyer and in most cases, sheer fiction.

The first step to be taken after deciding upon any career path is to ensure that the reasons for choosing the same are well justified and in keeping with the reality. Furthermore, one needs to know how to make their bones in such a field especially since it is constantly evolving in substance and nature. No one can tell an aspirant more about such factors than persons who have pondered over the same questions after having the same amount of misconceptions regarding law.

A successful career in law is usually attained after a person goes through a certain amount of struggle which ends up equipping him or her with knowledge and experience to be used in order to further their purpose.

The mere fact that a group of people, fresh out of one of the country’s best law schools, have as their primary purpose the tutoring of students, aspiring to be a part of the very field that they survived, is quite amazing and rather helpful to say the least. It guarantees to minimize the struggles mentioned above because the lists entailing what to do and more importantly, what not to do, will be based on what the teachers did not do and did, respectively.

Interestingly, the founders of CLATapult are part of the first ever group of students who appeared for CLAT. So as they await the results of the first ever batch of their own students, I am quite hopeful of hearing some good news from them largely because of two reasons.

First of all, I have seen for myself the amount of dedication and hard work put into this project for the sake of the participants. It is phenomenal to say the least and such an effort deserves a high yield. Secondly, I have wished this project well ever since I came to know of the concept and it is only fair that I get a meal out of it.

Saurabh Mishra is a 3rd year student at NUJS. If you are his senior at NUJS, you’ll rag him with orders to play the Mandolin. If you are his junior, you’ll still rag him with orders to play the Mandolin. BTW he plays ‘tujhe dekha toh yeh jaanam sanam’ with a spell-binding effect.