Raju's Way - A Laughter Therapy: Book Review Of Tales Of Law And Laughter By Raju Z Moray

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." – Oscar WildeWhen we talk about law, most of the people think that it must be something which the layman won't be able to relate or appreciate much. I recently read 'Tales of Law and Laughter' by Raju Z Moray, who practices law in Mumbai. For more than 30 years he has been a contributor of articles and poems to publications of the Lawyers Collective. This book, bring together 30 anecdotal stories which Moray has written for the Leaflet in the popular known as “Adaalat Antics”.An anthology of his humorous writing for 'The Lawyers' magazine was published in 2017 as 'Court Jester' and the series of 60 poems he penned during the 2020 Lockdown for 'The Leaflet' has been published in December 2020 as 'The Locked Down Lawyer'The book recollects some of most interesting encounters of Raju's life inside and outside the courtrooms in Bombay. He says that all stories are based on what he has seen, heard and experienced, “But I consciously hold the slipper of truth in a velvet glove of humour so that those who are at the receiving end of my well-deserved "pastings" can do little except curse me!” he adds. One must be thinking that courts are more about “date, dismissal or appeal.” but hold on, there's more to it if you read through this interesting book by Morray. The book reflects the real side of practice and it starts with a couplet by Mirza Ghalib, saying “Humko maaloom hain Jannat ki haqeeqat, lekin Dil ke khush rakhne ko “Ghalib” ye khayal accha hain.” The book is divided into 30 stories where Raju pens down his experience and experiments with law, most of them gives the readers a deep perspective of how the legal fraternity works. He has also revealed some of the “trade secrets” of litigation like how a clerk can do, what a magician cannot. My personal favourite: The magical clerk, Bigmani “A very important person in any direct practitioner's life is his registered court clerk. Without this special breed of conjurers' cases can neither be filed nor listed. I was lucky that I got to work with the best and the worst of them.” Amongst all the stories in the book, my personal favourite was Chapter V which is titled as “Our Clerk Bigmani.” The story revolves around how one clerk can do wonders, which a magician cannot. In this part of the book, Raju narrates about one of his experiences where he met a clerk named “Mr. Bigmani” who told him that “I have trained twelve judges.”, to which Raju wondered whether Mr. Bigmani lectured at some judicial academy, but then Mr. Bigmani told him that twelve lawyers whose clerk was him (Mr. Bigmani), had made it to the Bombay High Court Bench and one had made it even to the Supreme Court of India.Peek-a-boo: A deep insight of what actually happens in and outside courtroomsThe book does not target a particular audience, so even if you are not a lawyer or you wear long robes on weekdays, you can definitely get an idea about how the legal fraternity works through (with a pinch of laughter). As a lawyer, we all have witnessed different shades of adjournment which have been sought from both the parties. In another chapter titled as “Every dog has a day”, Raju narrates an incident from his early days in practice when he was given the “board-watching” job as back then there was not any digitalization of display boards across the High Courts or the Supreme Court. A counsel who was arguing a matter noticed three puppies come out suddenly from under the raised dais on which the Hon'ble judge sat. After a while, the mother of those pups, after traversing the back corridor entered the courtroom through the door reserved exclusively for the Hon'ble judges. The arguing counsel's attention was thoroughly distracted by this unanticipated intrusion. The following dialogue between the bar and the bench would demonstrate the incident fluidly: Judge: Is there some problem Mr. Counsel? Counsel: Milord, the pups are being fed by their mother right here during the working hours of this Court. Judge (looking surprised): “So what has that got to do with this matter you are arguing? Don't tell me you want an adjournment on this ground?”Counsel: “I am finding it very difficult to focus today milord. Could we take this matter up tomorrow?” Judge: That mother is doing her job. The pups are doing thers..and I am doing my job. Why should you be reluctant to do yours?”And no adjournment was granted, the hearing continued. Justice Irascible In another story, titled as the “judicial bully”, Moray talks about a judge who was elevated from the Nagpur bar and his elevation was opposed by many at the Bombay High Court. He decided to name him as “Justice Irascible”. One of the incidents also indicated that Justice Irascible did not like ladies practicing law and he was openly misogynistic at times. In one instance, he had insulted a respected lady lawyer who was not able to present her case, although she tried explaining to the bench...

Raju's Way - A Laughter Therapy: Book Review Of Tales Of Law And Laughter By Raju Z Moray

Areeb Uddin Ahmed

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