Blog@GraceJunction

The prosperous state of Gujarat has an ambassador now. A brand ambassador who will become the face of the state henceforth. It is none other than “Big B”, Amitabh Bachchan, and ever since he came to the state a few days ago for photo and video shoots at different locales of this state, every move of his has been reported by the media, including what he blogs and tweets about his experience everyday!

Mr. Bachchan too has been creatively churning out impromptu slogans and jingles. Actually, some of his observations are quite insightful. Posted on one of his blogs: “What a magnificent country we own. And it is only when you visit these places yourself do you realise that it’s not just the greatness of the domain that makes this land so wonderful and blessed, it is the man on the street, the commoner that gives this nation its strength and its glory!” I say, “Awesome insight”! (more…)

Humans yearn to be bound to someone in their lives to draw a meaning to their life. To lead a solitary life, unattached to people, is impossible.

In relationships, romance takes the laurels! It is still the most celebrated subject in movies made worldwide and more so in India! Strangely, in our traditionalist country, a lot of it is still in the celluloid! There’s an evident disconnect between what is shown and what is! Any bold exhibition of romance outside the movie, in public, is most likely to be viewed as profane! Romance, even still, doesn’t necessarily culminate in a marriage! Arranged marriages are still prevalent and surprisingly a vast majority of those who get married prefer arranged marriages over love marriages.

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The financial year-end had kept me busy and I couldn’t go to the Soul Café for many weeks! Moreover, the temperatures were much higher this year compared to the years before that I have lived, and so, coffee and all its derivatives were not very high on my wish list.

As April commenced, memories of the ‘All Fool’s Day’ and the amusement we had at the cost of our more naive peers flashed through my mind! I remembered that it was also a good old friend’s birthday! However, strangely, unlike how I would have been, this friend of mine, Amar, was ever glad that his birthday fell on such a memorable day! This year, as I called to wish him, I got invited to join him for an afternoon’s munch over coffee, and there I was, back where I hadn’t been in a while!

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Mandy, Shelly and Nita allowed Soul Café to become a discussion ground for the biggest topic on the globe these days – a doomsday prediction of another kind – “environmental crisis”. We presented our arguments very strongly and there perhaps was a kind of consensus emerging at the end of the discussion.

However, what was going to follow was something beyond my expectation, especially since it was came from a young girl of the post-modern era! Read on to know why I say so! This is what Mandy disclosed.

“This is what happened a few days back. I was in my room sleeping and it was dark. I believe I was in deep sleep. Few hours into the night, it was cold. I could hear sounds and feel something unusual around me. I could feel someone walk up and down besides my bed. I initially thought that it was my room-mate who has a tendency to walk like this but something was weird. I opened my eyes and I couldn’t move. I tried to scream but I couldn’t, I was numb. I turned my head to see something I cannot forget to date. A girl with long hair and her face empty or probably dark, was staring right at me! Her eyes, I could see her eyes, innocent and pleasant! It is very disturbing. It was like the eyes of some lost kid! Then in flash of a moment she pounced on me. She was trying to choke me to death and I laid there helpless. I can still remember how her hair rubbed against my face and the grip of her fingers on my neck. For some reason she just left and the door shut with tremendous force. (more…)

December 2009, one place that captured the imagination and attention of the whole world: Copenhagen, Denmark. Representatives from 183 countries met for a 12-day Copenhagen Climate Summit to try to come to agreement on how to best reduce mankind’s “Carbon Footprint” on our world. Though they finally ended up making a toothless and non-binding “Copenhagen Accord”, the summit was largely a failure. Despite a big and expensive build-up to the summit and long negotiations, they could not even agree upon or set targets for emission cuts of greenhouse gases! The developing countries were not ready to commit themselves while the developed ones had too much at stake! China, the world’s biggest polluter played the waiting game and made no commitments, thus frustrating everyone! (more…)

Recently while going through an article, I came across a statistics that made my eyes pop out! A game show on one of the TV channels received as many as “nine crore” (ninety million!!) phone calls made by people across all age groups from all over the country, just to take part in it! What would invoke such a response! (more…)

Coming home to be greeted by an empty house, eating the lunch pack arranged from the neighborhood, playing video games and talking to the characters inside the game, sleeping off in the middle of the loitering around, rushing off to catch up with friends and sports at dusk, coming in late for dinner to see the parents go off sleep for the day were the ‘almost predictable’ routine events in the life of the young man sitting before me in the Soul Café. He was about 19 years of age. (more…)