Friday, October 12, 2007

On hiatus

Hey guys,

T and I are swamped with school and work, so we're taking a short break, as is probably evident with our lack of posts in recent months! We'll be back shortly though :)

posted by payal @ 11:49 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Une Americaine a Strasbourg

Cathedral de Strasbourg


India in France!

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posted by payal @ 5:52 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 04, 2007

Intermission


hey all,

i'm going to be away from the blog up until July or so. if i get a chance, i may try to post something, but it will be unlikely. i'm currently busy with final exams and other school stuff and then will be away due to work and some travelling. so apologies for this brief intermission, but we'll be back shortly. until then...bon voyage!

~p

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posted by payal @ 5:33 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 20, 2007

Hear, Hear

In response to the whole Don Imus fiasco, Oprah held 2 townhall meetings this week on her show. Did any of you catch it? Quite frankly, I was not impressed. The theme for her first meeting/show was "What's Next?" and well, I still had the same question after watching her show. While some of the panelists were honest and had some good points regarding misogyny and actions that need to be taken by many in the music industry, the show left much to be desired. It all seemed so contrived and everyone kept beating around the bush to get to their points. Instead of having an active dialogue, at times, I just felt that it was just Oprah and her panelists voicing their beliefs (but bypassing any serious, complex issues such the business side of the industry, the purchasers of the music, the reason some of these women act the way they do in these videos, etc) followed by a round of applause from the audience, with random audience opinions here or there, and mostly all by black people. Cuz, you know, this isn't just a societal issue, it's just a black issue. AHHHHH!!! I just got so aggravated while watching it. Anyway, I'm not saying that there's any simple, single solution to the some of problems in mainstream hip-hop, but I do think that it's much more complex and there's much more that can be done, than what was revealed in these 2 townhall meetings. And, why, dear god, why has it taken Oprah so long to have this conversation on her show??? She should have done this years ago, and her excuse that she "didn't want to fight it alone" was such a cop-out.

Well, anyway, the fantastic racialicous has a wonderful post addressing this and one that states how I felt about the shows much more eloquently!

Also see my previous post on that wonderful hip-hop documentary that aired on PBS: Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

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posted by payal @ 1:33 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Vanaja

Hey all,

I've been meaning to post about this for sometime. I saw a trailer recently for the movie Vanaja and it looks amazing. It's about a young girl fighting social barriers as she comes of age.

photo link


Here's the trailer. And here's the movie's website. Since it's an independent movie, I'm not sure when or even if it'll make it out here in the U.S., but keep your eyes open.



**Also, apologies for not posting frequently. I'm going to be quite busy for the next 3 months so there will be sporadic posting. Sorry! But thanks again for visiting :)

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posted by payal @ 2:21 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Spread the word...

My peoples in Illinois, time to step up! Especially Illinois Desis:Call, email, write to local veterans organizations, media outlets, and the police department in Joliet. Most importantly, spread the word. At the least, they'll be a full investigation to find out what exactly happened. Take a step towards eradicating racist, xenophobic behavior! This cop needs to go back wherever he came from!.

Via: http:www.saldef.org/content.aspx?a=1682

SALDEF calls for immediate probe into assault and the xenophobic, anti-immigrant statements by police officer against bronze star recipient.

Washington D.C., April 11, 2007 --

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the oldest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization in the country, today called upon the Joliet Police Department to investigate the actions of one of its officers when patrolling a local neighborhood. On Friday March 30, 2007 at around 3:00pm, Mr. Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War, was at his home in Joliet, IL when a local police officer noticed that a van parked on Mr. Nag’s private property had expired registration tags. Upon being confronted with this, Mr. Nag’s wife, Vera Kaur Nag, informed the officer that the van is parked on their driveway and was inoperable. Mr. Nag then came outside to answer the officer’s questions regarding the van. The Joliet police officer then demanded that Mr. Nag park the van inside his garage and not on the driveway, to which Mr. Nag responded to the officer that it was not possible and that regardless, the van is parked on his private property and he has a right to park it on his driveway. At this moment, the officer pulled out his pepper spray and attacked Mr. Nag. As Mr. Nag screamed in agony, the officer removed his baton and violently struck Mr. Nag numerous times until he fell to the ground. While the assault ensued, the officer was reported by both Mr. and Mrs. Nag as saying, “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!” Mr. Nag's wife and six year-old child both witnessed the violent assault, which resulted in Mr. Nag immediately being admitted to the hospital where he stayed for five days due to complaints of intense pain and head trauma. Mr. Nag also received numerous bruises and a serious head injury which have caused him to go blind for several minutes at a time “This case seems to be a clear incident of police misconduct in Illinois,” said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh. “We are horrified at the anti-immigrant sentiment the officer allegedly used as he violently accosted Mr. Nag, and further that his six year old son was a witness to this violent assault. We call upon both Joliet and Illinois officials to investigate this incident and for the Illinois community to stand in solidarity with Mr. Nag.” SALDEF has garnered the strong support of the Illinois Sikh American community and is currently working with The Chawla Group Ltd to represent Mr. Nag in a criminal case brought on by the City of Joliet.

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posted by payal @ 7:21 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Attorney, Lettuce, and Indiana Jones

I had the most unfortunate, torturious, and frustrating lunch with an attorney the other day. Although some of you might claim that that's how all of your meetings with your attorneys go! ;) I had decided to meet him at the Hilton in town for a lunch as a way to network with him and get an idea of the type of law he practices.

But go figure, I would get stuck with the attorney who had a fork up his ass.

This fool of an attorney, and yes he was a fool, decided first to berate me right upon meeting him, that I had made the "wrong executive decision" to not miss class and which would have allowed me to meet him earlier and would have assured us a table with the rest of his friends. Then when I told him that I didn't want to miss class because I had already missed a few due to illness and I didn't want to be marked down(because attendance also factors into our grades) for missing another one, he had the nerve to tell me that the class I missed wasn't that important and wouldn't really help me in the future. WTF???? Umm....all first year classes are all basic, foundation-building classes so how could they not be important? And...who is he to tell me that I was wrong to miss a class! I'm paying for it, I'm the one learning from it, so dammit, I do have a right to NOT miss it if I DON'T want to!!!

Moreover, there were several seats still open and tables available for us to sit at, but he was just frustrated that he couldn't sit with his friends. Well, life is unfair, buddy, DEAL with it!

Moving on to more annoying moments, after the salad course, it was time for the entree meal. Now, I had booked this lunch several weeks ago, and being in a small city, I had also been in the right mind to specifically request a vegetarian meal. I had even talked to them TWICE to confirm this, with the responses both times being that they would take care of it. But, there I was, all alone at my table, as being the only one who wasn't served with a meal! Apparently, the waiter didn't know and they had to cook it right then, and so I was stuck with my lettuce and water. Now, I'm smart enough to know that when you go to these events, you're not actually there to eat(sad, I know!) but there to mingle and converse. But, I'd like to think that there would at least be something MORE than lettuce and water to suffice a meal. Seriously, the whole time, I had to stare at his face as he ate. But of course, Mr. Attorney, thought that the proper emotion at this time would be to show some empathy, some compassion. So he turns to me and says, "Well, uh, hey, are you sure you don't want the mushrooms on top of my chicken? HeHe. " (He said this and then smirked!!!) I kindly declined. But what I really wanted to say was, "REALLY? If this was your way to be funny, it wasn't. And is that what you REALLY want to say to show your concern for how I have NOTHING to eat except lettuce. NO, I don't want the mushrooms on top of your chicken, because, the whole reason I'm ordering a vegetarian meal is because I DON'T EAT MEAT or anything with meat on it, anything touching meat, or anything near meat. So, WHY would I want to eat the mushrooms that have been sitting a top of your chicken for the past 15 min? NOOOO!!!"

Sigh. Sadly, he didn't get it and I really didn't want to explain it to him.

But this afternoon still hadn't hit it's climax moment. The mushrooms only got the lunch started. He proceeded to ask me where my family was from in India. Now, I normally don't spend too much time talking about my racial or religious background (at least not on a first meeting) because that's really not the whole point of the meeting. But since he asked, I told about my family, my "roots", and my last trip to India. I managed to be pretty brief about it but still mentioned some important details and some memorable moments from my last trip. I then expected him to maybe say, oh how nice or oh really, and ask maybe a few more annoying questions. Instead, he said, "Well, you know, I think if I ever went to India, I'd be pretty intimidated. Hahahahaha."
And, well, truthfully Mr. Attorney, yes I think with your attitude, you might. But, seriouly, why would you say that to someone who just told you about their heritage from that country??? Additionally, lots of white people go to India every year, and survive( and might I add pretty nicely) the experience. And even if they were overwhelmed, they still manage. What makes you think you're too big of a person to go there?

But then came my favorite comment of the day. Without any concern or knowledge (obviously) as to who he was talking to and the effect of what he might say would sound like, he said, "Well, I guess if I wanted to know more about India, I could always watch that Indiana Jones movie!"

Oh no he didn't!!!!!! The worst, he was actually SERIOUS when he said that. No sarcasm at all. WTF!!!!!!!! I almost, almost gave him a dirty look. But told myself that he didn't even deserve that. Instead I kindly told him that that would NOT be a good a idea. And then I proceeded to drink my water with the desire as if I had just run a marathon so I wouldn't regret saying anything too harsh to him.

Seriously. SERIOUSLY. The lunch ended soon after that and I was left to consider how I had just wasted an entire hour and a half of my life with a rude, ignorant attorney who didn't even end up helping me with some of the questions I had!

The next time I do one of these things, I'm going to go stalk my attorney a week ahead of time to make sure he/she is cool and to erase any memory they may have of that awful movie!

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posted by payal @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

Update

Okaay....so now Illini are gone AND when The Namesake did finally come to a theatre near me in Chi-town, I'm not there for over a month, and will now likely miss the movie in theatres altogether!! GRRRRRR.

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posted by payal @ 4:23 PM 0 comments