Author Name:   Domingo Gomes

Roller coaster ride of litigation

Reason sometimes distances the self from the self. It weakens the being and constantly impedes and frustrates the soul from achieving the compelling vastness that it is here to achieve and coerce its magnanimity to succumb to alternative plans of destiny and gradually draws out the life from the soul and lets it die a slow painful death.

Defiance on the other hand strikes a fatal blow at reason. It commands the soul to achieve its true calling and prepares the soul through its constant pump of adrenaline to achieve what it is here to achieve and face adversity head on with the heart of a superhuman though the body might be of a mortal human. Strength lies always in one’s heart and not the body.

Sure you can’t be victorious every time but just because you lose does it mean you can’t win, just because you have fallen, does it mean you can’t get up. I urge all my fellow beings to garner the strength of the soul and toss reason into the gutters and proceed with the throbbing hot rage of passion and every time you are battered and have fallen hard, get up in utter defiance to life and challenge it to strike you a harder blow because this blow was not strong enough to throw you down. Remember the strength of a man is determined from the strength of the blow that is required to drop him down and keep him there.

Surviving in litigation would not have been possible for me had I not embraced defiance in the beginning of my career. After changing many jobs merely on the pay package that it was offering me, I suddenly got bored since my life was stable and happy. Drawing a fixed salary per month with adequate provisions for my family kept me happy but bored. There was no real fight. I was dwelling in security when my heart craved adventure, I was dwelling in reason when my heart craved rebellion, I was dwelling in peace when my heart wanted the chaos of a war. So I gave into defiance and chose to rage into the bad world of litigation. Survival was very tough. I never really had a senior nor a 'godfather'. I would roam around the corridors of the High Court like a lost soul peeping into various court rooms not really understanding what men in over sized black gowns looking a lot like me were telling the Honorable Judges in some archaic language that sounded a lot like English.

After spending approximately 6 months with no income whatsoever and with a family to support, my wife echoing the sound of reason asked me to get a job. My heart thought otherwise. One day out of sheer over optimism born out of extreme penury and desperation, I decided to go to my friend’s office. He was very successful in running his father's financial institution which gave out property and car loans at lower rates of interest. I walked into his room and asked him for a part time job. In a very polite manner told me that he needs full time employees and not an arrogant part time worker like me. He asked me “What is it that you can do for me" I did not have an answer to that question. I certainly did not want to be his employee as that would frustrate my entire plans but I really needed the money so I thought hard the entire night and the next morning I went to him with a proposal. I told him" Hey! Have you heard of a human billboard" "What" he asked me in utter amazement! (It was a new concept back in the year 2009. I somehow credit myself for inventing it) I said I will wear your companies name on my body and roam around the streets of Calcutta advertising for you and in return you shall pay me Rs. 500 a day.

He was not really convinced but decided to go ahead with it given the cheap investment cost. So I sat with the graphic designer, designed the logo and tag line which was my own and was roaming in the streets of Dalhousie, College Street, Park street, G.C. avenue on Sundays in the scorching summer heat wearing a heavy billboard hanging from my neck(I still remember the acute neck pains that the weight of the billboard would cause me). The billboard had the tagline written by me which read “I have mortgaged myself to loan a dream" and I went around streets with it. Some looked in pity, some offered my part time jobs, some were fascinated by the tag line and some actually became potential customers. After around 2 years of being a human billboard one day in Chandni square a man came up to me and said " You all are cheats and a bunch of crooks" When I asked him what happened he kept ranting abuses at me and then finally when age took a control over his rising blood pressure he said that he had taken an educational loan for his son by mortgaging his house and since he defaulted in paying his installments, the bank was taking possession of his property.

It took me quite some time to cool him down and I assured him that I knew a lawyer who could help him for free. He was perplexed. He said which lawyer on earth would defend me for free. I said "I would" "What rubbish" he retorted. "You aren’t even a lawyer" I assured him I was a lawyer and showed him all necessary documents to establish the truth. “Why would you do my case for free when you are in need of money yourself" "What do you want in return?" "Referrals" I said. If I can win your case and save your property from being auctioned, you will refer my name and my card to every person you are acquainted with". He thought a little but I gave him a deal and he had no options. Fortunately or unfortunately neither did I........................ That is a short story of how I got my first case and many more referrals.

Had I listened to reason, I would have had a better life, peaceful and secure but I would not have been me. I would have been what the society made of me and would have been reduced to a product of adjustments rather than exploring the magnitudes of my capabilities. My blood would be filled with thyroxin rather than pumping with adrenaline. My life would be filled by peace of a morgue but now my heart is throbbing with the turbulence of the sea......... sometimes it’s good to be defiant!

"This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery: weakness is death. It is weakness, says the Vedanta, which is the cause of all misery in this world. Weakness is the one cause of suffering. We become miserable because we are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We die because we are weak. Where there is nothing to weaken us, there is no death nor sorrow. We are miserable through delusion. Give up the delusion and the whole thing vanishes.

Strength, strength for us. What we need is strength, who will give us strength? There are thousands to weaken us, and of stories we have had enough.....
What makes a man stand up and work? Strength. Strength is goodness, weakness is sin. " ------ Swami Vivekananda

ISBN No: 978-81-928510-1-3
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