Читать книгу The Story of My Experiments with Truth. An Autobiography онлайн

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The stories of stalwarts such as these would unnerve me.

‘It is not unusual,’ he would add, ‘for a barrister to vegetate for five or seven years. That’s why I have signed the articles for solicitorship. You should count yourself lucky if you can paddle your own canoe in three years’ time.’

Expenses were mounting up every month. To have a barrister’s board outside the house, whilst still preparing for the barrister’s profession inside, was a thing to which I could not reconcile myself. Hence I could not give undivided attention to my studies. I developed some liking for the Evidence Act and read Mayne’s Hindu Law with deep interest, but I had not the courage to conduct a case. I was helpless beyond words, even as the bride come fresh to her father-in-law’s house!

About this time, I took up the case of one Mamibai. It was a ‘small cause’. ‘You will have to pay some commission to the tout,’ I was told. I emphatically declined.

‘But even that great criminal lawyer Mr. So-and-So, who makes three to four thousand a month, pays commission!’