Blog@GraceJunction

It was fun to see this Sunday our children enact the story of King Solomon’s judgement on the two mothers. Even though it was not the best performance in the world, the children did a very good job. They portrayed the story in the best way they possibly could and left the audience laughing with their dialogues and honest acting, while ushering in some powerful thoughts in to the mind of the audience.

Let’s rewind, go back in to the room and see the teachers trying to teach the kids the story and then the acts. It’s very important to have the sequence this way, because if the storyline has not seeped well in the children then no matter how hard you try to teach the kids to act, they are sure to goof up.

Now the entire act made sense because they followed the story line of the teacher. Picture this – during the training sessions many of the children would act as they would think right, would want to say the dialogues, as they think is correct and many a times never follow the story line. Some of the bold children would want to change the story and do it their own way, add other stories that they have seen and impose their will in to the act. Some children would never want the role that they are having and sometimes everyone wants to do the lead role and be the hero. The teachers did a good job in making the performance make sense. (more…)

You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

Since over a decade, thousands of British teens head for Crete, a Greek island, for their holidays. They usually stay over for about a week. A very chaste and innocent choice at face value but in this one week’s time, they create mayhem on the island. (more…)

You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

For any generation, these are really tough and seemingly rude words. However, the acridity pales off before the events that play out before us daily. The news pouring in from different corners of the globe are appalling and shattering and only confirming to the confession we read above. (more…)

Democratic systems derived from British democracy have the system of recognising a official opposition to the ruling party. The traditional role of the opposition can be classified under three broad headings:

1) the voice of the voiceless,
the opposition expresses the view of a significant section of the electorate and helps to ensure that concerns of the various groups and other interests not represented in government are not forgotten or trampled upon.

2) alternative to the ruling government,
the oppostion constantly reminds the electorate that there is a viable alternative to the incumbent government. One that has a real or imagined potential to improve the quality of life of the people and let them realise their aspirations. (more…)

The credit cards and easily available loans made almost everything available to the common man. When the generation of the 50s-70s worked a good 25 plus years to buy a decent house with minimum facilties and bought a car after the age of 40, the new generation is buying a much costlier and better equipped (loaded) or rather luxurious house at a much earlier age (early 30s) and this generation is also buying a car much earlier too. Of course the myriad professional options have resulted in greater opportunities for earning, but the thrust has mainly come in from easier funding - credit. However, there are still things out there that even credit will not allow many of the big dreamers to acquire.

Satiated at a much earlier age, it takes much more to now challenge and satisfy these young turks. High ticket paraphrenalia, available at the malls and exclusive shops, or even in the high-end shops don’t catch their attention at all. They are aiming much higher, at things not even in the luxury list of the average citizen (muggles!). The boundaries have been pushed much higher (monetarily). Now, what’s enabling these proponents of “dare-to-dream” to fulfil their dreams and desires has nothing to do with wizarding, but its the age old business of ‘Hiring’ and ‘Renting’! (more…)

Every other Saturday, Joshua Haedelt leaves his home in Westchester County, NY, and makes the hour-long drive to Shotsie’s tattoo studio in Haledon, NJ. There, Joshua, a 28-year-old record executive, prostrates himself on a table for three hours while tattooist Juno Vassi pricks his back thousands of times with inky needles. For the next week, Joshua is miserable, bandaged, and sore. He won’t fully heal for two weeks and then it’s back to the drawing board.

It’s the most painful trend since whalebone corsets. Tattooing, the art of the primitive and the outlaw, has been moving steadily into mainstream. No longer are tattoos for the exclusive decoration of sailors, marines, and bikers. Tattoos are leaving a permanent mark on arms, legs, chests and other body parts of a growing number of celebrities and even normal people. (more…)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 8:00pm

The Manmohan Singh led UPA government finally did win the trust vote by a margin of 19 votes amidst the mudslinging and all the hoopla in House of the People (Lok Sabha). The victory they said was sure. They described it as a ‘convincing win’. Meanwhile the battered opposition almost predictably termed it as ‘corrupt victory’.

Over the past few days, the nation woke up to numerous stories about MPs switching loyalty for payoffs ranging from rupees 3 to 25 crores. Charges of horsetrading were doing the rounds since the past three days but the countrymen did not expect MPs to suddenly start disgorging wads of currency on the table of the House, allegedly given to them as a ‘bribe’ for abstaining from voting in the confidence motion moved by UPA government. The MPs also claim to have videographic evidence (Rajdeep Sardesai trying to earn some brownie points over Tehelka and Pranoy Roy’s NDTV, with a stunning sting operation) of the whole bribery deal. India was stunned (perhaps more by the flashing of the wads, in the sanctum sanctorum of world’s largest democracy, than by the allegation per se). This cash-on-table was the first for the Lok Sabha! (more…)

” ‘VIBGYOR’- this is how you will remember the color pattern of the rainbow, OKAY??”

” Yes, ma’am” said everyone in a uniform chorus.

“Gud”- smiled she.

“Ma’am when do we find the rainbow in the sky?” asked one.

“Oh, the rainbow appears during the rainy season or during the last days of the rainy season”

Everyone’s eyes still fixed on the teacher and wondering if she was telling us the truth or was she introducing us to some imaginary fairytale thingy.

“Ma’am, can you show us the rainbow during the rainy days?” asked another one. (more…)

The Manmohan Singh government seeks a trust vote in the Lok Sabha today and the political drama in India has managed to attract widespread attention worldwide, as it will decide the fate of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Under this bilateral pact, the United States will provide India access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel in exchange for IAEA-safeguards on India’s civilian nuclear reactors.

A lot of time and energy was spent behind the passage of the Hyde Act in 2006. The leading opposition party BJP which laid the groundwork for the deal criticized the deal and does not want the government to accept the deal without a vote in the legislature. The Left too had withdrawn its support. The nuke deal has been scripted by Manmohan Singh but the political risk is almost that of Mrs. Gandhi. The possible UPA meltdown will be a hard blow for the party to bear. The loss could be terrible and a win might have a few downsides. (more…)

I wasn’t so scared and afraid earlier during the day as I was now, driving down nervously, with my senses on peak alert, searching everywhere for any signs of rioters and trouble makers. We sneaked thru the streets very close to my house, and I could see all around my house burning cars and trucks, stone strewn streets, shattered glass. I choked, my tongue stuck on the roof, trying very hard to gulp my spit as my mind began to recreate the images of what transpired during the day, when my wife made a distress call. Sobbing uncontrollably and tearful, she was scared and terrorized, while locking her self up in the confines of our house.

I had never attended a call like this before and those moments seem permanently etched in my memory. I was at the factory up on a giant machine, explaining it all to a foreign customer whom I had picked up at the airport early in the morning. While I left home it was all ok, the air was a bit tense but as I drove further from my house I did sense the turmoil in the air. I drove past people, up in small mobs and saw shattered windshields and glass all over the streets. I just reminded myself of God’s love and protection on our lives and confidently drove past all of it, seemingly ignoring it all. (more…)