Blog@GraceJunction

The Ahmedabad Mirror (TOI) reported today news on the Delhi High court’s stand on a matter regarding the Center’s move on banning gay sex. Chief Justice A P Shah incidentally has asked the Centre, Quote: “show us some scientific report which says that gay sex should be criminalized”. Unquote Now that’s the Chief Justice demanding science, to prove that Gay sex is wrong and is an evil that is detrimental to the society. Apparently the Centre quoted some religious text condemning the act and had requested criminal provision against homosexual acts stating it is required to curb the spread of HIV infection. It further said that homosexual behavior is a reflection of a perverse mind and it could not be allowed in the society, things which are quite easily & intuitively perceivable, without a PhD in Science. (more…)

Every morning I approach the news papers with the fear of getting de-sensitized. Today for instance, The Times of India, Ahmedabad Edition carried news about an act of unnatural proportions – Man having sex with a calf! The matter was brought in to light due to the animal protection activists you may read the entire article here.

Thank God, there are at least some people in the society (People for Animal) who think that there is something called as evil / wrong and the matter was brought to light. A voiceless animal found some one who could fight for its cause; unfortunately our big mouthed society has none! (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…)

Mate,

It is nice to be able to write these letters to you from jail. I am awaiting the final decision on the mercy petition pending with the President of India. These days I am just reflecting on the days gone by and I can’t help myself from being nostalgic as hopes of a future life died when I was convicted.

I felt like a life wasted in the quest for being loved and wanted. There are many things that I could not have changed but there were many that I could have. I could not have changed my family, my parents and my upbringing. I could not have done much about my parents strained relationship or the inevitable pain of going through my parents divorce as a small child. (more…)

This August 15th we as a nation will complete 61 years of independence. Independence from British imperialism and a period of exploitation of the country, its resources and therefore its psyche. The Indian Psyche was crushed under the fierce desire of the English empire to colonize the whole world.

The British Empire started its Raj after the Battle of Plassey, in 1757 when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the Company by granting the ‘Diwani’ or the right to collect revenue. The Indian sub continent saw many upheavals since then, violent and non violent, but not much inroad was made till the entry of Mahatma Gandhi. (more…)

“Most likely, you shall be debarred from the university”

My heart sunk as I heard my exam supervisor blurt these words out. “But everyone’s doing it!” I tried to justify. After all, why was it that she only caught me (and this stupid neighbour of mine) of all the 20-odd students in a 20×18 classroom?

But it had to be me. I was so ashamed since I was in (Yes!) my second year of post graduate. One of the most decisive years of one’s life. And here I was, almost ruining it with an act that I thought was being committed by all and so I had the equal liberty to do so too. Yes, I was caught copying.

Well, it’s been some years now. Yet, just when I thought I had had it pushed into the depths of my memory, it popped up again one day. The other day the newspapers carried a news article mentioning that an IPS officer had been caught copying during an LLB examination. (more…)

A recent survey done in Britain found that two thirds of adults believe that the moral values of young people have declined considerably since the time when they were young. According to most of them, the rise of the celebrity culture and weakening family bonds are undermining traditional moral values among young people! Who is to blame? Are these adults listening to their own conclusions? Or its everybody else that is wrong!

We cannot do much about the celebrity culture, can we? But weakening family bonds? But it seems, the society is not too eager to do much on that front either! Bonding with kids means investment. Investing time and also infusing values.

It’s a very bad world out there. It’s pretty much difficult to barely survive! When do we find time and opportunity to care about values, much less, pass it on to the kids! Who has time to intervene in the kids’ lives and help them navigate the challenges of modern day life? They will find their way. (more…)

A frustrated jobless youth strangled his mother to death for denying him money and kind of taunting him on his state of life!

The news left me in a shock. The mother who bears so much pain to give birth to her baby and just forgets about her pain totally for that joy that captivates her when she sees the little life in her hands, a part of her being.

This youth did not even remotely hesitate to kill his mother, let alone feeling any pain or remorse. It seems relationships do not matter any more in our educated, scientifically advanced world.

The world rather values the robots (that will catch the waves of your mind and do exactly what you want) more than the living human beings that live around, as the “dear” ones who are no more so dear, I guess. (more…)

A very strange trend, definitely looking like a trend, can now be seen in our land. People are becoming very famous in a day. So much that most people know them and about them in a just one day! Every newspaper and news channel covers them, many times for hours together!

Till that day happens, they move about, almost invisible to society, and many times even to kith and kin. They do umpteen things, but these are hardly noticed or even if they are, they are not worth a news. It doesn’t discourage them, and they go about their narcissistic lives with an almost unswerving dedication till the skeletons tumble out of the closet or the time bomb stops ticking and explodes.

What happens is so startling that people discuss it for days and weeks together! Even the judiciary and the investigators get busy and our sensation thirsty media men are kept on their toes. But most often than not, our subject under discussion is not alive any more to respond to the applause and attention! A case of Posthumous fame!! And even if they are alive, then they are either in hiding or in a place, where a lot of attention is also coming from khaki clad body guards (if we can call them so!) and more famous inmates! (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…)