Blog@GraceJunction

Neetu Chandra did succeed in churning up a dust storm in the media with her newest pose, which according to many of her applauders was bold. Honestly I feel, she doesn’t realise that she is too naive and is being used as an object to feed the media pages with sizzles. The journalist and the media group that put up her larger than life images, I am sure would not have been filling the pages with tons of support and appreciation nor felt the pride if it was their daughters, sisters, wife or mother. But then who cares when you get a free ride on someone and they allow you to use their story to spice up hungry audiences and heinous ends. The sickening thing is that even she seems to be loving it, and appreciates the raving eyes and desires of debauched minds of people that feed in with a peep in to her - what they call truckloads. (more…)

Reading as a habit or interest is waning in popularity. However, if you go to a place like Crossword, suddenly you feel that it is not so. That place buzzes with activity and with people and you get inclined to tell yourself, “Well, people still do read”. But the percentage of readers has certainly taken a beating in the last few years. The city libraries are a mute witness to this. They present a gloomy picture of the gradual depletion of voracious readers who used to flock the libraries every evening. Apart from a few elderly people and a handful of students, the libraries wear a deserted look most of the time. (more…)

Is TRUTH Relative

I got on a airplane to travel up to a well known city. After a long wait the aircraft’s engines started to roar and the aircraft hit the runway, however I was startled at the unusual slow speed of the aircraft and guessed something was wrong. Then all of a sudden I saw that the aircraft was moving out of the airport gates and it hit the roads. I got up, the air hostess waved her hands and signed me, as if asking me to jump up, but then I realized that she was infact asking me to sit down. She said we are taking off in a short while, please be seated till the flight is stable and the seat belt signed is switched on.

While I was still trying to understand what was happening. The flight started to bend forwards and make a nose dive, that’s when I noticed, to my utter horror instead of flying up it was trying to dig itself in to the ground! I yelled “Hey what’s this! It was supposed to be a flight to this particular city, but you are hitting the roads and taking us in to the ground!!” (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…)

The train chugged powerfully thru the drizzle as I kept waiving. This was the beginning of a journey; a journey which just like the train was powerfully pulling the load attached, moving against all odds, piercing thru darkness, thru the cold wind and the rain – unstoppable.

It was not the pull of the train that powered the journey, rather it was something else more powerful, that was moving forward – It was the journey of Truth. My mind couldn’t forget the young child’s smiling face, less than a year old. The journey reflected innocence, trust and childlike faith. This friend of mine was traveling out to a very remote jungle to meet an unknown tribe, a tribe which still is centuries behind the normal world, cutoff from the rest of the world this tribe still lives in prehistoric stone age era. (more…)

I can never describe the feeling and the ecstasy I felt as I flew over the cool icy blue waters of Maldives (well cant describe the color by words, nor I can compare it to something we’ve seen). What a scene!!

Like a small child, whose eyes glow up with wonder each time he sees the magic trick performed – I was held “gasp-less” as I was unveiled to the wonders of the Grand Designer. Every thing I put my eyes on, captured me. I saw splendid true colors that I had observed marketing companies so poorly trying to match. I saw ideas that we so beggarly try to copy. To a much-wearied traveler like me, in my lifetime of travels so far, nothing caught me in this frame – “Wonder with jaws hanging”. (more…)

Learning never stops in a lifetime. A few days back I was teaching an engineering student basics of engineering drawing. While teaching concepts on three-dimensional drawings and designs, both of us observed a concept repeated time and again - “draw the reference lines first”.

We noted that it was very important, to first draw the reference lines before we commence drawing any other lines of the drawing, no matter how much important they seemingly appear. Every other line in the drawing had to be drawn keeping the reference line in perspective. If the reference lines were skewed, you would never be able to get the results right.

We also found a very intriguing fact, guess what ? Normally, every one draws the reference lines first, as if this is something common inscribed in everyone’s heart. A true reflection of something more solidly drawn on the heart of every human – Our Conscience. (more…)