Blog@GraceJunction

The world has become very busy. Everywhere people are running. Running for what? Status? Money? Fame? Success? In this mad rat race people have surely forgotten who they are and what is it that they really and truly want. Are the things that they run after, the things that they really want or are their real needs something else? Do they stop running once they get what they were running for in the first place?

In some of our metros, people don’t have time even to meet their children. They meet them on Sundays, because on weekdays, when children leave for school, parents are sleeping and when parents return home in the night, the children are sleeping. So what is it that is so big that people are running after it at the cost of their family life and even their own lives?! (more…)

Somethings, they say, are contagious, and one of them is a smile. One of the things that we have lost or forgotten in our daily lives is, how to smile!

I was once getting my shoes polished by a cobbler on the street. After his work, I handed over the money to him and turned around, and somebody immediately said, why don’t you just say thank you and smile? My first reaction was Smile and that too at a cobbler on the street who is getting his money? Why? Well, we men more often tend to keep the macho image in us and we often think it is cool to have a stern face and it fits the image of an achiever, which we have so many times borrowed from our bosses, the hard task masters, the super achievers and many times people who personify all our dreams!! (more…)

It was mid April when I read about the elaborate plans of the Chinese government, on how they are preparing themselves for the upcoming Olympics. Frankly, I was quite impressed about the level of thought & effort they are putting in, to make the event a success. If you’ve ever been to China and if you had a glimpse of what they have built it to be, you would surely bow down to their achievements. In everything that they did, they’ve shown it to the world.. what sheer human grit could achieve!

The news article read something like this “The Chinese government hopes launching shells containing silver iodide pellets into clouds will curb rainfall and ensure clear skies for the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. According to the plan, 100 staff at 21 stations surrounding the city will have 10 minute window to blast away at the clouds so that they can be dispersed before they come near the stadium. Three aircrafts will also be on stand-by to drop catalysts on the clouds…!! (more…)

Three weeks before Christmas 1993, Wolfgang Dircks died while watching television. Neighbors in his Berlin apartment complex hardly noticed the absence of the 43-year-old. His rent continued to be paid automatically out of his bank account.

Five years later, 1998 the money ran out, and the landlord entered Dircks’ apartment to inquire. He found Dircks’s remains still in front of the tube. The TV guide on his lap was open to December 3, the presumed day of his death. Although the television set had burned out, the lights on Dircks’s Christmas tree were still twinkling away.

It’s a bizarre story, but it shouldn’t surprise us. Each year thousands of people are found accidentally days or weeks after their solitary deaths in the affluent cities and suburbs of the world. If a person can die in such isolation that his neighbors never notice, how lonely was he when alive? (more…)

Is that all that a life can be valued at? Just Rs 2.25 lakhs?

That was the question which came to my mind over and over again after I read about an incident which happened in Delhi High Court recently.

A story was told about a man named Shambu who hails from Madhubani district in Bihar, who after a silly quarrel with his father Kailash Chaudhary left his home and traveled 1000 km to Delhi to become a vegetable vendor. He was the only son of his father.

On that tragic night of September 26, 1999, as Shambu was sleeping in West Patel Nagar in Delhi, the building collapsed and he died under a pile of brick and mortar. Forensic reports of samples taken from the building debris found that a disproportionate ratio of cement, gravel and sand had been used. A probe by the Special Crime Cell of the Delhi Police ended with a sessions court charging the builders under Section 304 A (death caused by negligence) in August, 2003. (more…)

First, the caveat: advertisements (ads) are deceptive.

Now I know I didn’t let out a well-hidden secret as a favour. Rather everyone’s aware of it some or the other point of time. Yet, allow me to rest my case.

Recently I saw a television commercial (TVC) that went something like this: (more…)

“Vinay! Will you go out or should I kick you out?” my mother would question me. Even before you start wondering what prank I would have got into, let me clarify that it was no punishment. Rather this is what my mom would force me to do every summer when I was a kid (yes, you are right, I have grown up); go out and play.

It was an ordeal for both of us; for me to convince her to allow me some more TV time and for her to kick me out to play some outdoor games. And once out, I would be gone for hours (not that my mom regretted it).

And yet after all these years, living now in a densely populated locality in Ahmedabad one would expect some better activity across the lanes than solving confused ideas between self and one’s canine friends. But I hardly come any kid happily marching down the streets to play cricket (or any other sport for that matter), except only when there’s a power cut which again is a rarity in the city. (more…)

“Trust me mom, you will love this place.  It has all the amenities that you need or want, more than what you ever got so far.  Weren’t you always looking forward for your own suite with an attached bathroom?  And how much you love satin bed sheets and pillow covers!  This place has got everything,” said the young suave executive on the phone, sipping his hot cuppa. 

Eavesdropping is a journalist’s forte (If I may be excused).  The tea stall tends to offer enough fodder to chew, especially when somebody is referring to an article appearing in a newspaper.  But what I heard, for once, led me to some introspection. The guy was talking about an article (or story, as it is referred to) that had appeared that day.  The story talked about some city-based industrialists joining hands to construct a ‘state-of-the-art’ old-age home with ‘five star facilities’.   It further said that the need for such an old-age home is felt because of NRIs leaving the country with their parents behind.  These NRIs can anyways afford to enroll their parents at this upcoming high class old-age home.  (more…)

Baby girl… What has become of her! No one wants her! Not even the one who gave her birth! Why is this happening?? Just because the nation and the society thinks that “she” is a burden! Burden to be brought up, burden to get married off, and then the burden of taking care of her even after her marriage! Why doesn’t a nation or its people take men and women equally?? It is because we have accepted it that way!? No one wants to break the boundary. Everybody wants to play safe!

When young, I mean not married, people fight for the cause “Save the Girl Child” but what about when it comes to self!?  “Are they still able to stand for the cause? No is the answer. Pressurized by the (in law) family, by the society for the want of the boy child to continue their family heritage et cetera, they also give in! What is there in the continuation of the family!? Gandhiji’s heir are here among us….but who cares for them….no one ……! (more…)

May 11. Mother’s day celebration across the world. A day to celebrate probably one of the most cherished relationship of our lives.

Mother. The very first person that we probably called out when we learnt how to use our vocal cords more meaningfully. The first person whose touch made us feel at home and secure.

All of you, I am sure, will look back to your relationship with your mothers and it will generate in you emotions which swing from calmness to pure joy. Mothers tend to be our greatest calming influence as they are so strong at heart and at the same time can be a great friend atleast compared to the father, who sometimes has this image of the disciplinarian, with big moustache and a stick in his hand but not always so! There are many I am sure who might differ but a greater number who will agree with me. (more…)