On June 2, Justice V Mohana took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court of India - the second woman elevated directly from the Bar. For the legal fraternity, it is a moment of celebration. For me, it is something far more personal. It is the elevation of the woman who took a chance on a nobody from Madhya Pradesh. Here, I am only telling my side of the story, from the perspective of a total stranger to this profession.

After completing my Masters from Pune, I arrived in Delhi in 2011 with a law degree, a suitcase and absolutely nothing else - no contacts, no references, no family connections to the Bar. I am a first-generation lawyer from a middle-class family in Madhya Pradesh. Delhi might as well have been a foreign country for me.

The standard advice for juniors is to knock on doors. I knocked. Some offices agreed to take me as a junior, but at zero stipend. I could not afford that. Three months passed. Savings were thinning. The city was indifferent. I was on the edge of abandoning the dream and returning home.

Desperation sharpens your thinking. I downloaded the directory of Supreme Court advocates, identified those living in Mayur Vihar, where I was staying, and began calling one by one, being upfront about needing a position with at least a modest stipend so I could survive while I learned.

Most calls led nowhere. Then I reached Mrs Mohana. She was an Advocate-on-Record at that time, operating from Nirman Apartments. She heard me out with a patience I had not encountered in months of trying. After a brief conversation and an informal orientation, she agreed to take me on.

I have never fully understood why she said yes. I had no pedigree, no contacts, nothing to offer except willingness. There was no connection between us whatsoever - she is from Tamil Nadu, I am from MP, different language, different world. Perhaps, she simply remembered what it felt like to start from scratch herself, as a first-generation lawyer navigating a system that does not make space easily for outsiders.

On my very first day, Ma'am assigned me to appear before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in an Army officer's promotion matter, simply to seek a passover so she could come from the Supreme Court and argue later. The Bench did not grant it. I returned to chamber having failed at the most elementary task on day one.

Ma'am said nothing of the sort I feared. She looked at me calmly and said, 'All you must do is your work honestly and leave the outcome to the court'.

I have practised law for more than 15 years since that day. I have returned to those words more times than I can count. They were not consolation for a nervous junior; they were a philosophy of practice.

At that time, Ma'am's chamber was a small, focused operation - herself, me, her clerk, few occasional interns and an office assistant. The first thing she taught me was how to read a file properly, begin with the FIR in a criminal SLP, begin with the legal notice or plaint in a civil matter, then read everything in chronological sequence till the order and prepare a detailed chronology like a story. I still do this on every matter without exception.

She also required that I prepare every case listed in court as if I had to argue it in case she does not reach. That discipline kept me perpetually on edge, in the best possible way. Also, in my free time, I was supposed to observe the Court functioning or read the next file I had drafted, and never sit idle in court or the library.

I would go through a file meticulously, proud of what I had found, and Ma'am would sit down with the same file and point out things I had missed. Not occasionally, but consistently. Her command of law and her eye for detail could turn a matter.

I have never, in all my years at the Delhi Bar, met a lawyer who works harder than Mrs Mohana. She was at the Supreme Court gate by 9:30 every morning and inside the courtroom by 10 AM, without fail. She did not leave before 9 in the evening. I absorbed this not through instruction, but through proximity. I still reach court at the same time. The practice is hers, even if the matters are mine.

I worked with Ma'am for just over a year, a short time, but I was exposed to high-profile matters that most junior lawyers would not see in 5 years. When I eventually moved on, I carried everything she had given me - the method, the discipline, the values.

Today, as Justice Mohana becomes only the second woman elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court of India, I feel nothing but pride that I began my journey with her. The institution gains a judge of remarkable capability and integrity. She will bring to the Bench the same ferocious preparation and the same respect for everyone who stands before her that she brought to every day in practice.

I write this not to claim any reflected glory; her journey is entirely her own and I was, at most, a footnote in it. I write it because I want to record what it means to a first-generation lawyer from a small town to have luckily found, at the hardest moment of his early career, a senior who opened a door and asked for nothing but my best efforts in return.

Manoj Kumar Sahu is an Advocate-on-Record, Supreme Court of India.