Blog@GraceJunction

(Re-post from March 26th, 2008)

The papers today reveal a quest of science that started several decades ago. Physicists from all over the world are getting together in Europe and are racing to prove the existence of a particle that’s surmised to be at the heart of the matter!

Dubbed the “God particle“, the Higgs Boson, which “it” is otherwise called, is a controversial particle believed to bestow mass on all other particles. Scientists are hoping to discover traces of its presence in Fermilab’s Tevatron, a 17-mile-long circumference particle accelerator (also called the Hadron’s Collider) that smashes opposing beams of protons and antiprotons around a circular track, sifting through the debris with two immense detectors. This experiment is supposedly expected to bring back Europe as the leaders in Physics and not the USA! (more…)

You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

For any generation, these are really tough and seemingly rude words. However, the acridity pales off before the events that play out before us daily. The news pouring in from different corners of the globe are appalling and shattering and only confirming to the confession we read above. (more…)

LIFE LESSONS

A church pastor once asked young men in the church to volunteer to sell new bibles in their neighbourhoods and raise some funds for the church. Three of them volunteered. Jack and Paul were professional salesman and so the pastor was glad. But Louis, was only a local farmer and he stammered too! However, not wanting to discourge him, the pastor sent them all off with a stock of bibles.

The following week, Jack proudly reported the sale of 20 bibles and Paul reported the sale of 28! The pastor was really impressed. When it was Louis turn, the pastor asked him, “Could you sell any at all?”. Louis handed him a packet, which the pastor discovered had proceeds of the sale of 320 bibles! (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…)

“Aaj kal key log pehley kapdey dekhtey hey (Nowadays people look first at your clothing)”, says the punchline on a hoarding.

I was wondering what did people look at in earlier days?! Were they looking with eyes that could penetrate into the soul??! Could they see through? Didn’t they look first at clothes too?

Haven’t clothes and apparel always made fashion statements? Haven’t clothes always rode on the winds of change in society? Have they not represented rebellions, revolutions and new worldviews and philosophies? Have not clothes almost always expressed the views and opinions and allegiances of people? Have they not always been associated with bit of controversy? (more…)

The Times Group had outclassed rivals at the Abby Nite in Mumbai— powered by a brilliant ad campaign done by Grey Worldwide, centered around saving the girl child, which appeared in The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition, in October-November 2006. With five golds and one silver, the ‘Jaago Gujarat’ campaign was a clear winner in the category of Public Service Advertising at the Ad Club of Mumbai’s 40th Abby Awards function at Royal Turf Club.

The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition’s ‘Jaago Gujarat-Save the Girl Child’ campaign, one of the most successful and long-running examples of positive activism for a social cause, also swept the UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2006-07. In the western region awards, TOI-Ahmedabad won the award for the “Best Campaign on the issue of Sex Selection by a Media Group.” Special correspondent Radha Sharma, who spearheaded the campaign, bagged the award for best reporting in the category of ‘News Features-Print Media in English Newspapers’. Advertising agency Grey Worldwide bagged an award for the ‘Best Public Service Advertisement in Print’ for the advertisement campaign around the girl child issue in TOI-Ahmedabad.

Some campaign! Everyone bagged something or the other! (more…)

It has happened after 40 months. Inflation has touched the 7% mark. Minerals and staples like vegetables, rice, wheat and edible oils, all have taken a northward climb.

The reason cited is that the demand for staples and vegetables has increased and the supply has not been as forthcoming as expected. The agricultural output has reduced, due to not upto the mark monsoons in certain sectors and bad throughput in other areas. Climatic changes have also effected yields.

The demand has increased manifold!

So naturally inflationary pressures are natural outcome of such a situation. A supply shortage does fuel inflation. (more…)

The TOI today is flooded with the news of a DPS school bus that overturned yesterday on it way to school. Little Akul Rathod, a really cute 9 year old student of standard IV, was killed in this freak accident, and he had no scope of survival because, his head got trapped between the bus and the road divider and his skull got crushed.

It pains me to even write about it, and I cannot even imagine the deep scar this event will cause in the mind of his parents. And this wound will never heal. They will have to nurse it as long as they live.

Ashok Patel, the driver of the ill-fated bus was overspeeding it seems. He jumped a divider and rushed past a truck to beat him to the junction. He overtook from the right when he actually needed to turn to the left! The trucker was not very happy it seems. He gave a slight nudge to our ‘Ayrton Senna’ before he speeded away to his destination, leaving the school bus to a cruel destiny. The bus it seems, turned turtle twice and in the process threw Akul out of the window pane, only to crush him later. (more…)

For those who came in late, here is a recap of what has transpired very recently at Soul Café. I was meeting up with my old friend after a very long time and during the course of it we discussed about the various recent trends among teenagers in India and as we were talking about it a youngster chanced upon our conversations and joined in. The conversation then went on to explore evolution and creation and then trying to understand a creator’s mind in allowing death, pain, suffering and sickness into his creation. All these took a lot of time and had taken a heavy toll on me and we took time out for dinner.

(more…)