Filter Coffee #008

On access to justice, and the art & science of coffee

Dear Readers,

I must thank you all for the encouraging words of appreciation, comments and suggestions - they brighten up my day and often give me something to think on. Please continue to share them with me, and share Filter Coffee with your network.

In 🔗 #006, I had mentioned the 75th Lawyers Round Table that was to be held on 16th August. Well, I’m pleased to say it went off exceedingly well. Mr. Cyril Shroff, the managing partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, spoke about the future of the legal profession and legal service delivery during COVID-19 and post-pandemic, whenever that may be.

He made a few very valid observations during his 75 minutes interaction, many of which are relevant across businesses:

• Stay close to the clients, without an agenda.

• Communicate frequently.

• Let bad news take the elevator (so that you can deal with it quickly).

• Let good news take the stairs (soak in gently and receive it with humility.)

• Within the firm, let pain travel from top to the bottom.

• Let relief from that pain be felt at the bottom first and then progress to the top.

• Survive on brutal optimism. Celebrate successes, however small.

• Make some room for spirituality. It calms the mind.

He also spoke about virtual courts and how justice is being administered remotely, with lawyers and clients participating from their offices or homes. This represents a paradigm shift in the manner in which lawyers and clients handle court proceedings. Cyril made an interesting observation:

If you consider justice as the place where it is dispensed, then you may prefer real court halls and may not feel very comfortable with virtual hearings. But, if you consider justice as a service, you become indifferent to the medium but stay focussed on getting justice for your client.

He also underscored the importance of mediation in resolving disputes (something we explored in-depth in 🔗 #005). It was time well spent with Cyril, and certainly left us all with a lot to think about.

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⚖️ Access to Justice

As Cyril pointed out in his talk, the way we administer justice has adapted to become more accessible in this uncertain time. But true accessibility of justice neither starts nor ends there.

The existence of the rule of law, the courts, the judges, and the lawyers does not always mean that access to justice can be had with ease. There are sections of less privileged people —  women and children who have been denied their rights, people who have been exploited, and those living in abject poverty under inhuman conditions. The right to dignity, life, education, and employment are integral to a civilised society. All around us, we see various abuses and indignities heaped on those with no means to raise their voices, let alone fight back.

You and I hesitate to go to a police station to report an offence for fear of being looked upon as the accused instead of as a complainant. Eyewitnesses hesitate to come forward to give testimony for fear of themselves, or their family being targeted. And in that hesitation, injustice manifests in the acquittal of the guilty.

Do these people have access to justice and will that access be free? Who will present their case convincingly enough in court? Do they have recourse to redressal, or is the reality what this picture below tells?

These are the questions iProbono India asks and aims to answer. iProbono India is a section 8 non-profit organisation that upholds truth, operating since 2011 with the mission to strengthen civil society, represent people in need (like Amal and Munira in the video below), and advocate for justice. The India programs are guided and implemented by the team in Delhi and Maharashtra. Localisation is fundamental to iProbono’s ethos.

To introduce you to the organisation and provide you with insight into what it stands for, I spoke to Shireen Irani, the dynamic co-founder of iProbono. Before qualifying as a lawyer in the UK, Shireen studied and worked in India.

Pras: What sparked the idea behind iProbono, how did it get started?

Shireen: I was inspired by lawyers like MK Gandhi and Nelson Mandela early in my legal career, and I founded iProbono in the UK ten years ago with the belief that most lawyers are inherently justice seekers who could be mobilised to strengthen civil society and represent vulnerable people. Having worked in the development sector before becoming a lawyer, I knew that a small population of human rights lawyers alone could not meet the scale of injustice. At the same time when I entered legal practice, I found many frustrated mainstream lawyers who were unable to contribute to the causes they cared about. I wanted to build an organisation that would facilitate active citizenship opportunities for lawyers, with a collective goal of creating a kinder, more just society. iProbono was born and accelerated rapidly.

Pras: I believe iProbono works across the world, with a current focus on South Asia. Could you tell us more about your India-based work?

Shireen: iProbono India's work is rooted in partnerships with civil society organisations (CSOs), grassroots groups, and public sector bodies. We believe in collaboration across sectors, working closely with lawyers, social activists, journalists, filmmakers, academics and other justice seekers in order to inform our approach. We are committed to challenging systemic barriers in order to access legal justice.

Pras: How is iProbono’s work structured?

Shireen: Our work is framed around three main pillars.

1. We represent people who are marginalised in upholding their basic rights, expanding the routes to justice and equality of opportunity. This work often has a strategic element, but that is not a criterion for us taking on cases. iProbono’s strategic litigation is cross-cutting, on issues from child protection to the right to housing. We work in conjunction with CSOs and grassroots groups, but also take on cases that come directly from affected individuals. We provide holistic counsel, enabled by our strong lean team that delivers strategic direction, operational execution, consistency, and tenacity while leveraging the contributions of a wide range of pro bono lawyers.
   In the past four years, the team has represented over 100 child survivors of sexual abuse, and five of those cases have changed prevailing precedents, for instance in creating gender parity in child abuse compensation cases.

2. We advocate for the rule of law, policy change, and active citizenship to combat injustice and entrench human rights. For instance, the Ministry of Women and Child Development requested iProbono’s assistance on various matters, including creating a legal toolkit for police on cybercrimes against children.  

3. We build capacity in civil society by providing wraparound legal support. These are usually transactional and regulatory matters where we assist CSOs in building and sustaining their work. For example, we have partnered with I Was A Sari since its inception.

Pras: How has the COVID-19 crisis impacted your work?

Shireen: Like many other organisations, we had to pause and take stock following the lockdown. Until virtual hearings began, courts were closed for weeks for “non-urgent” matters. When we reached out to our partner CSOs working in the social justice space to ask how we could support them, nearly all of them across rural and urban areas had reoriented their goals and were providing direct food relief to the communities they worked with, many of which were food insecure. We were able to raise funds and partner with 30 groups across 16 States and Union Territories and reach close to 140,000 people with humanitarian relief in the last four months. India, like most jurisdictions, has seen an awful spike in domestic and child abuse in this time, and we are actively building direct litigation support for domestic abuse into our current projects.

Pras: Thank you, Shireen. I am sure my readers will find this very interesting and perhaps extend a helping hand to those who don’t have the strength to knock on the doors of justice.

To find out more about iProbono and to be part of iProbono’s legal community, 🔗 register here.

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☕️ The Art & Science of Coffee-making

Those of you who know me know that I appreciate a good cup of coffee, and those who don’t know me — well I’m sure the name of this newsletter tipped you off! As an ardent coffee-lover, I’m always on the quest to find the perfect cup. It was with that goal in mind that I spoke to my fellow mason and coffee connoisseur Sreeram Gangadharan.

Pras: Sreeram, I often hear people voicing a specific set of concerns —  particularly those who are tea drinkers migrating to coffee after getting Bangalored:

• I don’t make filter coffee at home because it seems like a lot of effort, do I need very expensive equipment?

• I don’t know where to buy the equipment from and how to use it.

• Even if I did have the equipment I wouldn't know which coffee to use.

• I never get the café taste when I make my coffee at home with my coffee.

Sreeram: Many of my customers at my Café have asked similar questions. Let me share some of the easy ways to make a great cup of coffee, keeping in mind the products easily available in Bangalore along with a list of places where you could source them. 

Pras: Before you do that Sreeram, please give my uninitiated readers some of the basics about coffee and coffee making.

Sreeram: Sure. Here are some of the basics:

1. Filter coffee and instant coffee are very different in taste. Don’t compare them. It is like a fresh Orange juice and Orange squash — both are from the same fruit but clearly have extremely different tastes. I would prefer to drink fresh orange juice any day.   

2. Filter coffee takes a little more effort to make than instant coffee, but the rewards in terms of taste are clearly much greater. It makes every sip worthwhile.

3. Each type of filtration equipment used in making coffee will have its own specification on how the coffee bean needs to be ground. Broadly speaking, let's say we can classify the grind sizes as fine, medium and coarse.

4. The fresher the roast of the coffee the better is the taste. Just like homemade tea, the magic of making a good cup of coffee lies in the perfect extraction and clean filtration.

Pras: That’s very useful to know. Now, please share some of the methods of brewing a fresh cup of coffee

Sreeram: I will keep it simple. There are a few basic methods:

South Indian Filter

This consists of a stainless steel or brass filter and it comes in two parts. The top part has perforations and you put medium ground coffee powder (4-6 heaped teaspoons depending on how strong you want your coffee to be). You then place the pressing disc on top of the powder. This is then placed on the bottom segment, which collects the coffee liquor as it decocts. Simply pour hot water into the top part and close it with the lid, and in about 10 to 15 mins, the bottom part will have clear decoction. You can then add milk and sugar to your taste and enhance the experience of coffee by drinking it in a dabra set.

The French Press

It is one of the oldest and easiest methods of making coffee. You put 2-3 spoons of coarse ground coffee directly into the pot, then add hot water and fix the filter back onto the pot. Wait for 3-4 minutes then push the filter down gently to extract that perfect cup of coffee, Barista style.

Moka Pot

Extremely durable and built for rugged use, the functional stainless steel Moka pot is a great way to brew your coffee. Freshly roasted, medium grind coffee powder is placed in the coffee filter basket. Water is filled up to the safety valve level in the lower chamber. The upper chamber is then screwed into place. Place this on the gas stove and your coffee is ready in under 4 minutes. It’s a simple, no-fuss way to get a great cup of coffee.

The Electric Drip Filter

This is a very easy method of making coffee and the equipment is easily available in the market at very low price points. It has a chamber for hot water and another compartment for the coffee powder. Some brands have a metal mesh to act as the filter but for the others, you will need to use filter paper. Fill it with water, add medium grind coffee powder, and just watch your coffee brew. 

Age-Old Method

Boil water in any vessel that you normally use, once the water has boiled put in 2 teaspoons of coffee powder for a cup of coffee. Allow the coffee to steep in the hot water for about 3-4 minutes and then use a nice channi to filter out the coffee powder. The amount of time you let your coffee steep and the temperature of the water will define the strength of coffee you will get. You will need a  coarse grind for this method — but be warned —  if you are a beginner brewer, this method is not for you.

Pras: Thank you Sreeram. There’s so much to talk about when it comes to coffee. I look forward to continuing this conversation in another edition of this newsletter.

For further details, readers can ✉️ email him here.

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Potpourri

• As part of the virtual International Construction Law Conference on 10 September (9:30 am to 6:00 pm BST), Debevoise partner Tony Dymond will be chairing a discussion entitled ‘Life after death – contested issues following a termination.’

  For full details, and to register for the conference, please 🔗 click here.

• In one of my previous newsletters, I mentioned my fascination with Mr. J Mathrubhootham’s hilarious anecdotes. I was recently wondering what had happened to him as he was out of circulation for about a month. Well, he surfaced again and is “back with a bang”. He says,

  We are staying in neighbor Shankar Menon's flat. Poor fellow is getting middle of the night heart trouble. Whether children can come from abroad? Never. Because of Corona. So both of us decided to take care of the old friend. Madam/Sir, what and all adventures happened in Dr. Shankar Menon’s house. I will write in the next letter ok? Ok.

  I recommend 🔗 ‘Back with a bang’ if you’re looking for a hearty chuckle.

• Finally: Why is Aug 23rd special? On this day in 1966, the first photograph of the Earth was taken from the Moon’s orbit by Lunar Orbiter 1 launched by NASA. Take a look at this historical image and more breathtaking views of our little blue planet in 🔗 this slideshow put together by The National Geographic.

I hope I was able to provide some food (or drink) for thought this week. I look forward to hearing your perspectives (leave a comment, please!), but for now, take care and I’ll see you next week!

P.S.