In New Zealand I often cover court, but I by no means claim to be an expert in court reporting. In fact I am often having to ask my colleagues what seemingly minor phrases mean. I enjoy it though, court is an entirely different world. And in Bangalore it's the same. Though not the same different world to New Zealand's court - this is a world only India is capable of creating.
Where Wellington's High Court has about five court rooms, Bangalore's has 40. It makes for a hub-bub of activity. It also makes little sense.
I spent the day following around Deccan Herald's court reporter, but often did not know what I was sitting in on or quite what was going on. The lack of microphones also made it practically impossible to hear. There is a major case at the moment where the former Chief Minister (essentially the mayor of the state) has been arrested on corruption charges (the most common cases brought before the court are corruption cases), so that was where the majority of the action lied. But I think the reporters themselves were bored with the case, and knew what the outcome of the day would be (because it was fairly obvious) without having to sit through the entire day, so we spent a lot of the day flittering about, not really sitting in on any one trial. It was hugely interesting, none the less.
People are everywhere - particularly lawyers in their gowns (which are identical to the gowns worn in New Zealand). Often the court rooms would be filled to the brim with people. People were standing in the doorways and constantly coming and going. And then the corridors would be filled with even more people. If I ever catch myself wondering where the 9 million Bangaloreans are (which has sometimes happened, there are moments when there doesn't seem to be that many people), I will remind myself of the court scene.
At the end of the day I asked the court reporter how many stories he got out of the day. He replied four. I couldn't believe it, but then we met up with the other reporters from other papers and I realised how he got four stories despite only sitting in a court room for a total of about 30 minutes. They all help each other out, if one person gets something, they give it to everyone else. It was a completely different way of operating to New Zealand.
Another point worth mentioning is the size of the guns carried around, particularly outside the court room where the Chief Minister's case was being heard. They are huge, like up to my chest. I mentioned it to one of the other reporters and she said they weren't loaded and were all for show, but then another man who was party to this conversation said they were loaded. I don't know who was correct, but I'm not willing to test.
Nice post, Hana!
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