So, there's going to be another trip to Pondicherry coming up soon. Too soon, if you ask me.

Does anyone know a good adoption lawyer? One based in Pondicherry, preferably, otherwise one based in Bangalore will do. Our current lawyer is a bitch. Sorry, I don't usually describe people that way, but there seems no other way to describe her. She yelled at Amit yesterday, again, and he didn't even do the slightest little thing to provoke her. Unless you consider asking politely for the date and likely time/duration of the hearing to be a provocative question. Plus she's told us that it is altogether impossible for either one of us to attend the hearings, and get some kind of exception for the other; and that it is altogether impossible for us to request a change of date for any hearing date set by the judge that may not suit us. I don't know about the former bit of information, but the latter definitely seems like she's being deliberately obstructive. Can any court be so reasonable as not to have some procedure allowing the petitioner to request a change of date? What if one of us were out of town or scheduled for a medical emergency on the given date? According to Madam Lawyer, the judge would simply dismiss the case. I don't know much about legal matters, but to me, that seems absurd.

So anyway, in the course of shouting at Amit, she said that we would have to be present at court the entire day, from 10 a.m. till about 6 p.m. with an hour off for lunch, because our case could be called at any time. Again, this seems ridiculous to me, but more worryingly, I have NO IDEA how we're going to manage the twins that whole day. Has anyone ever heard of keeping two almost-two-year-olds quiet and happy in a hot, sweaty, crowded courtroom where they're not allowed to talk far less move around or play - the WHOLE DAY LONG? Well, I don't think it can be done - quite apart from minor matters such as afternoon naps and diaper changes. Amit is convinced that if I'm absent from the courtroom for just 5 minutes changing a diaper or trying to soothe a frantic girl, the case WILL be called in that interval, the judge WON'T accommodate my short-term absence, and we WILL have complications like the case being adjourned or dismissed. I doubt that things can be quite so completely arbitrary even in our judicial system (what if one of the petitioners has to use the toilet?), but there's no reasoning with him.

So presently, we're trying to get my sister to accompany us for the trip. Let's see how that works out. Meanwhile, we have four weeks to work on getting a second legal opinion, which I think we really need.