I distinctly remember the day when I bagged the Twelfth International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot 2011. I was not too happy. We were a team of six including two researchers. I don’t think anyone was enthusiastic except in the beginning. This is a moot with a particularly long ‘gestation period’. One had to revive energy and spirit repeatedly, given the dicey problem and the enormous amount of research involved. With no idea about Arbitration and absolutely no idea about Maritime Law, it was a tough job. By the time July arrived, I was worked up with the amount of labour it took. Working in the middle of exams was the worst part of this moot. No matter how much I tried balancing moot work and academics, I couldn’t. The loads of exemptions I took weren’t enough. The moot was still very demanding.

At June end, we had to meet up at Mumbai and take help from a lawyer there who was expected to train us for the orals. Unfortunately that did not happen. However, a moot oral takes a lot of practise. We did it on our own. I was exceptionally underconfident after getting questioned by the team researchers in the mock orals. I lacked practise and it was a nasty feeling. I felt very helpless and that was discouraging. By the grace of God, that nasty feeling led me to some encouragement and I started practicing like crazy. Even while sleeping I couldn’t help getting my ideas clearer. I used to wake up in the middle of a nap and correct something that I found would be better. Basically, I was my own judge. I had to decide what would look and sound better and set my own standards. All during the day what I thought about was my arguments and how to present it the best way. Eventually, I started feeling strength and confidence. And a confident me, I knew, is very charming. I strived to look more confident about my ideas and be sure about them. There were times when we were not even sure if we were conceptually correct and that was painful. Till the last moment of orals arguments and their structure kept changing. We were up against two Indonesian teams, an Australian team and a Chinese team. During the first round, we realized that we knew absolutely nothing about arbitration and its style so we lost. After getting the judges’ feedback, we worked on it immediately and incorporated all the suggestions for the next round which was to take place in another two hours. We were to face an Indonesian team next. We were great and we won that round. It felt so good and I felt more confident for the Respondents Round which was to be the next day. My practice sessions had decreased. But I knew our rounds against Queensland would be tough and I wanted to give my best shot.

The Queensland team had a girl and a boy as oralists. The boy was okay but the girl was exceptional. I gathered that she was a grad student. She was very well versed in whatever she spoke. Her arguments could easily be countered by ours but the way she spoke was something I might have only seen in movies. Summing it in a word, she was outstanding. The judges were thoroughly impressed. I spoke last. I didn’t let her performance shake my confidence. I spoke loud and clear. I tried putting forward my points with the best articulation possible except that sometimes my sentence construction went haywire. The arbitrator asked me a question which did not pertain to my arguments. Thankfully I knew about it and answered. The best part is that I was feeling great while speaking and was enjoying the session. It had been ages since I had spoken so comfortably and confidently in a moot. I don’t know my scores but I know for a fact that both, I and the panel enjoyed the rounds. I was so happy. All the hard work had paid off as far as I was concerned. I had been so tensed for the past so many months. There was always something maritime-ish occupying my mind. I have my head clear about what to do next. I’m looking forward to going back home, having nice food, eating something different from Subway.

Hah, I’m back home and back to college too. The latter is something I was not looking forward to. The bad part is that I didn’t get to stay home too much and I’m stuck here. The semester is challenging unlike the others. The challenges include… umm.. I shouldn’t disclose that on the blog! But there are challenges. The girl who was only used to working little and getting huge results has to start working more to get the desirable. The one who never studied more than a week in advance in High School has to study everyday and even has to copy the notes of classes shes missed. Projects have piled up and she has taken a lot of things in hand already. She probably has the entire semester planned out. Gosh, this is the first time she has something planned out. Lets see if she sticks to it.