Blog@GraceJunction

Pressure was the most talked about issue in Anju Musafir’s workshop on parenting that ended last week. The amount of pressure that kids go through to perform in class, deal with fights and prejudices in class, teacher’s negative comments, peer pressure, course and tuition pressure et cetera are only mounting by the year. Parents are also not helping them in lessening this pressure, on the contrary they are only adding up to it by allowing no play or music or movie! (more…)

Indian Elections is the event that has made Prannoy Roy and NDTV what they are today and thus also almost responsible for the existence of almost every other news channel in the fray. Indian Elections, atleast in the last two decades, has been the subject of much speculation because of the change in the voting patterns of the electorate, more importance being given to local issues. This of course has kept Prannoy and his boys happy and very soon will make him a media baron! Jai Ho Prannoy? (more…)

Finally Vodafone seems to have found the nemesis for the ‘Pug”. Hutch, the ex-name of Vodafone, was known for its pug, a dog that followed its owner everywhere, conveying the ‘where ever you go, our network follows’ punchline. The pug was such a hit that Hutch couldn’t keep the pug out of any of its strategies and ads! I mean literally, whatever Hutch did, the pug followed! The pug tried to enter the Vodafone camp after Hutch was bought by Vodafone. However, Ogilvy & Mather finally seem to have come to the rescue with a new mascot(s), thus paving the way for the last and final departure of the good old pug ‘Chika’. (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…)

Anju Musafir. Not a name that would make many people in Ahmedabad to turn their heads, even just an year ago. However, recently, when a workshop was announced in a school where Anju was to speak, there was an unprecedented rush of lawyers, doctors, teachers and even psychologists to hear Anju! Very often it is the subject of the workshop that draws the crowd. But in this case, people were flooding in just to see and meet Anju. Anju had become someone who had certainly impacted their lives. (more…)

When I was reading the newspaper the other day, it was carrying an article about the ‘the great down ageing syndrome’. It is all about how people in their middle age years are turning to youthful looks and they are doing everything possible to keep up with the changing times. (more…)

 As we read in the papers, one lady (a britisher by the name Christina) who challenged the Ahmedabadi people to keep the city clean, has brought big shots and like wise common people to hold brooms and sweep the roads (other than of course our reporters who are taking pictures or covering the event!)

The usual mentality is like this …..I had it like this:
Usually, when I go in a car, if I have eaten anything and a wrapper is left, I just roll down the windows and throw it over on the road. It is like who cares anyway - India is a big dustbin. My husband keeps the wrapper near his seat and brings it home and throws it in the dustbin. I always used to think, “Why does he have to carry it all the way home, after all India is a big dustbin?” (more…)