Blog@GraceJunction

 
I was visiting Australia and was at the home of one of my good friends, who since the time I meet him at the metro station, would keep telling me about his daughter and the pain she’s going thru. As the strong man drove his huge 4 x 4 truck, I could feel that he was vulnerable, all the strength and grit that I admire him for had somehow been weakened. (more…)

“We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them”. This statement is part of the Manhattan Declaration*, a manifesto which was drafted on October 20th, 2009 and released on November 20th, 2009 with the support of more than 150 American Christian leaders. The declarations website encourages supporters to sign the declaration affirming their support for the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife and the rights of conscience and religious liberty. (more…)

The much awaited monsoon had finally descended on our city with a few continuous and long spells. I ve always looked forward towards this time thru the year, a time to be drenched by the rains. It a great time of relief as the cold drops touch you face and drip in to your soul to soothe. This time I was with my son, who equally enjoys the rains. It was fun splashing and jumping in the poodles created in the courtyard of our house. Suddenly my son stopped playing and asked me a question – Dada where does this water come from, Is there a shower tap in the skies? Does God operate them ?. Why are there bubbles in the water? Why is water flowing away, I want to play, why cant we stop it. Later he would cry when the rains would stop or when it would just drizzle and I would tell him, ask God to open the shower. However these questions lingered in my mind and put me on to do some research on this simple thing called water. And I found there is much more beyond this simple thing called water. (more…)

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…)

The loud music coming from inside the huge canopy, huge halogen lights all around, smell of excitement rising above the small stench of animal presence, vendors selling popcorn, wafers, cold drinks, balloons, toys etc, and anticipation and excitement of my elder daughter and even myself are some of the first few things that come to my mind when I look back to the evening a couple of days back. I had never seen a circus for real. There were huge gates to greet us and to make sure people don’t barge in. The show inside was still on and we could hear faint sounds of announcements by the ringmaster rising above the din of music and the murmur of hundreds of people.  Suddenly, they appeared. Hordes of them smiling, talking, some amused, some with a look of disbelief and most only thinking about the next chore on their list. They kept trickling out and I was surprised by the number of people that tent had accommodated! (more…)

In my wee-wonder days of childhood, the classic debate was “Will robots replace human beings?” The person who stood “for it”, always won the debate by justifying the fact about the improved quality of life, faster production & development, maximum utilization of natural resources etc. Hearing the debate I always wondered what type of a dumb and wobbly feeling would have measured-up in the heart of the person who stood against it! 

But today it would be foolish to, not admire and be thankful for the great achievements of modern technology over the last century: advance medicines, advance energy, advance weapons, high speed communication and navigation systems. (more…)

“One life. Why so serious?”.. Goes the latest ad campaign for the much awaited hatchback from the Honda stable, Honda Jazz. Let me take you thru a small history of this car. The car was launched in the year 2001 in Japan and in Europe, US and some other markets the car is known by the name “FIT” and in singapore, and some other markets its known as “JAZZ”. (more…)