Honest Lawyers - a oxymoron?

I know most people will say that there's nothing like an honest lawyer. I think so too but in my case, I say that from personal experience something that most people probably wont have.

I was trying to find a lawyer experienced in corporate law to go through an agreement I wanted reviewed and perhaps reviesed till it was appropriate for me. Thinking I'd go to the best, I called up a very large locally based law firm that I will not name but will referr to as BL. At the firm I called their most experienced lawyer with supposed expertise in my area of interest (the firm has a complete searchable directory and contact info on their website) and explained what I wanted. I said I had the text of an agreement that has most of what I want and I wanted a lawyer to go through it and revise it so it suited my purposes.

This guy said he could work with me and said that initially he would give it a "quick look" and tell me if it needed revision or not - that's it a quick look to tell me if it needed work but would not do any revision - and for that he would charge me $500! $500 for a quick look.

I kept my cool and asked him politely exactly what he meant by a "quick look". I mean I already knew it needed work right? Why would I pay him $500 for him to tell me the same thing. The bastard realized he'd been exposed and began blabbering about how they were a huge law firm and how his hourly rate was $450 and how they worked with big firms and yet he was willing to work with me and crap like that. That's funny - his hourly rate is $450, i.e. I should be getting an hour of his time for just $450 but instead for me he was willing to charge $500 for what would be less than 5 minutes of his time. Come to think of it, he wouldn't have to spend any time at all - One could **always** say of any document - "it needs work". Easy and simple and impossible to disprove. After all he didn't even have to tell me what work it needed! Such a quick and easy way to make $500 from a sucker!

I politely listened to him try to recover from my exposure of his dishonesty when he said that for a small firm like mine an independent lawyer would be better and that he could give me a reference if I wanted. I said fine and then he said that his assistant would call me after which we rang off. And guess what - his assistant never did call back.

I ended up going with an independent lawyer in another state who claims on his website to provide real value etc. etc. After I spoke to him and he agreed to work with my draft agreements (which BTW came from a well regarded book - I didn't just pull them out of my rear end). I've sent him the agreements and answered some questions of his. I spoke to him after he missed one self imposed deadline and he said that he'd suddenly got busy etc. with another project and he'd have my stuff ready by Monday (today). He's not gotten back to me yet. More on this later.

Devanagari Script

So blogspot has the capability to publish in the Devanagari script through a simple translation of the latin script. Here's my test and comments.

A Vedic Prayer

ॐ
असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय
ॐ शांति शांति शांतिही

ॐ
Lead me from the Unreal to the Real
Lead me from Ignorance to Knowldege
Lead me from Death to Immortality
Om, peace, peace, peace

This is surprisingly easy to use. As soon as I type a word, it is converted to Devanagari so I can check the spelling and make changes. Left clicking on a converted word brings a popup list of similar spelling choices which is very useful. For example Ma (or Maa) got transliterated to maam but I could correct it through the left click menu. Easy to get a hang of methinks.

Do the British Deserve Credit for "Modernizing" India

On the BR forum, there was a heated discussion going on as usual. The topic was the supposed modernization of India that was due to the British. Unfortunately, there is very little clear thinking in India and elsewhere on this topic. There is much support for the view that though the British looted India and beggared her, they were relative benevolent and modernized India. Among the holders of such views are the current PM, MMS. There is much wrong with such a view and it mostly reflects the deference the holders have for the British. Anyway, my response which got some support and surprisingly eliminated at least for a time, arguments from those who support this "modernization" view was:

"The British "modernisation" of India was done with looted Indian money and for their purposes. Very simple fact. Being that we were one of the richest countries in the world then (that's a fact) and actively involved in trade with the rest of the world (again a fact) not isolationist like China, we would surely have bought whatever technology we needed anytime we wanted it. And for less cost, more efficiently and in a manner that suited our purposes not somebody else's.

Similarly, social change was a given in India, we were also quite familiar with concepts like rule of law (read Ashoka's edicts) and democracy (plenty of well established city republics even in Buddha's time (all well established fact's mind you - even "eminent" historians agree). The monarchies were not absolute unlike the contemporary west - the king had established obligations and assemblies of advisors were not uncommon. Democracy in its modern form would have come to India, probably sooner rather than later.

To talk about the "information economy" as a "benefit" of British colonialism and our "advantage" of knowing the English language is so exceedingly stupid that it boggles the mind. More likely than not, in the absense of colonialism, we would have been well industrialized, richer and have no need for coppers thrown at us by the looters. Absolutely no acknowledgment of their "modernisation" is needed at all. It's like thanking your daughter's rapist for teaching her the marvelous technique of using a condom (so HE wouldn't get any disease). You only talk about the rape, the condom is mentioned only in the context of getting a health check.

Top Ten Good Things about Indian Communists

At B-R, one poster wrote in praise of communists and was roundly critized by fellow forumers. I thought this was highly unfair to Indian communists. To highlight all that is good about Indian communists, I came up with a top-ten list of things to like about Indian Communists. With so much good about them, it was a huge fight to get to be on the list. But after much soul searching, this is what I ended up with. So here's the

Top Ten Things to Like About Indian Communists

(10) Ensure cheap labor by keeping poor poor

(9) Always economical - even with the truth

(8) Increase vocabulary with words like "bourgeois" and "proletariat"

(7) Support missionaries so these damned Hindus can be kept in check

(6) Election results known well in advance

(5) Brinda Karat's Bindi

(4) Nandigram!

(3) Give workers much needed R&R through strikes

(2) Policy of ceding land to China so India has less people and land to bother about

And the number one reason to like Indian Communists

(1) Dead communists make excellent tourist attractions

Random thoughts of the day

Pretty interesting this. Now I can freely give vent to the world of my opinionated self. Not interested in my opinion, you say? Well, suit yourself my friend. Be happy.

PR