This song is stuck in my head since morning. And it’s not even my favorite song from the musical (Chicago). But I can’t get it out of my mind..
P.S.: 1. BTW, my favorite song from the musical is Mr. Cellophane. Second favorite being We both reached for the gun.
2. I am not sure if I mentioned this before. I am a great sucker for Musicals. I watch anything in name of musicals.
As I mentioned earlier, I have a crush on Alan Shore. Here are links to five video 
clips (embedding was disabled for these videos. Sorry for the inconvenience) from the series Boston Legal to explain you the reasons. But before you go through them, you need to know some back ground about the series. So here it goes:
Alan Shore is a fictional character in series Boston Legal. In the series, he is a 
lawyer with the firm called Crane, Poole & Schmidt. He is a brilliant lawyer and a compassionate human being. His best friend is Denny Crane, who was a very successful lawyer in his days and now suffers with mad cow disease and Alzheimer. He is a Republican to the core unlike Alan but surprisingly this rarely causes any problem between Alan and Denny. (Another reason I love the show).
The first clip is about his secretary's financial troubles when her credit card company 
charges ridiculous interest rates putting her $50,000 in debt. He deals with the lawyer of the credit card company here. The credit card company lawyer is very perky and it’s quiet entertaining to watch Alan’s reaction to him. He simply can’t stand him. (Boston Legal, Season 2 episode-10: Legal Deficit).
The second video clip again involves his secretary. This time she refused to pay the 
income taxes to IRS as a “protest” against her money being used to finance the war she opposes. Alan Shore gives a great speech in this episode about how many ridiculous things have been passed through American constitution recently, in name of patriotism. (Boston Legal, Season 2 episode-19: Stick it).
The next clip is from one of my favorite episode of Boston Legal. Alan is trying this 
case in Texas.The case is about a convicted murder who is sentenced to death. The defendant confessed to murder. But new DNA evidence put someone else at the murder scene. A friend calls Alan to help represent the convicted murder. The passion of Alan Shore in this episode was amazing. He lost the case and his client was put to death. (Boston Legal, Season 1 episode-17: Death be not proud).
The fourth video clip is a case which Alan lost. It was a case about a girl who had a neurological disorder due to an accident
which makes it impossible for her to smile. She is a good student and still one of the best private school refuses to admit her because of her illness. So Alan pulls up a stunt by calling the press at the school and gets her admitted in the school. Later he talks to the girl about fitting in. (Boston Legal, Season 2 episode-15: Smile).
The last video is a mixture of a lot of different things. Simply sit back and enjoy. (Boston Legal, Season 2 episode-13: Too much information).
Hope you like them as much as I do!
(This post has been brewing for a long time and hence is a bit longer than usual. And also it’s a bit haphazard.)
Last summer Californians were celebrating the court decision to strike down the 
same-sex marriage ban and almost every gay couple in California was rushing to get married. The pending Prop 8 ballot also didn’t diminish those spirits. Right about that time, while discussing politics with an older friend whom I respect, the gay right issue came up. To my surprise, she scoffed and said that she can’t understand why everyone (=gays) is making such a big deal about it? There are a lot more important things to worry about such as economy, housing crisis, the wars.
I didn’t answer her at that moment as I thought I might get carried away. But I did want to point the fact that she had answered her own question: why everyone is making such a big deal about it? If someone wants to marry someone, how does it affect anyone else? Let them. It makes them happy and it doesn’t harm anyone else. So why do they have to make such a big deal about it? There are so many other important issues to worry about. Let’s make a big deal about them.
But with all the existing homophobia around the world, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. Talking
about Homophobia, this invitation was sent few days back on the Stanford Indian Association(SIA) group (Click to enlarge). I saw it. I closed it. Next time I opened my mail, there was a reply on the group. It asked if this is a queer list? And that’s when I noticed the box on left hand side declaring Trikone is a non-profit support & advocacy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals & Transgender South Asians. This isn’t the first time that a non-profit organization has organized an event in Bay area and have sent an invitation to Indian group in Stanford. But then they were child care organization. (We love kids.That’s why we have a lot of them.) LGBT supporting organization shouldn’t send their invitation to our group. But wait, don’t we as community maintain a status that homosexuals don’t exist in India?
But then I shouldn’t be too harsh on homophobic desis. Not long ago, I was one of them. Though not as bad. At least I hope so. I remember my first trip back to India (in 2005). (I know I am digressing but I need to tell this antidote). Actually, it happened when I was boarding my flight back to states. As usual the flight was supposed to take off late in the night (or early in morning). I was waiting in the boarding area,trying to keep myself awake. I was too sleepy to read so I was simply looking around. That’s when I spotted two hunks really good looking guys sitting nearby. And then they announced the boarding. As I was taking my seat, to my delight I again spotted them. They had the seats right in front of me. I couldn’t believe my luck. That never happens to me. A moment later I realized, that really 
never happens to me. They sat down and started kissing. Each other. I couldn’t believe my luck. Well jokes aside, I remember the way my jaw (and my stomach) dropped down. It took me several moments to compose myself. I felt completely numb and had no idea what I was doing. The shock was a bit too much for me to handle. (Also: Ouch). So I think I should not be the one making judgments about other people’s homophobia.
What I am trying to say is that I completely understand the utter shock one gets when one realizes someone, he or she knows, is homosexual. It’s not an easy thing to deal especially for desis. We all grew in a very conservative society where talking about one’s sexuality is forbidden. Homosexuality is unimaginable. Most of my Indian friends think homosexuality is unnatural. Other than that, it doesn’t deserve their attention.
Trouble is, whether we like or not, homosexuals are a part of our society. Approximately 10% of population in any country is gay. In India, gay men get married
and have children. However, 90% of those married gay men still continue to have sexual relationship with other men. What do you know, we don’t have homosexuals after all. We just have cheating husbands. But then how does it matter. As long as they get married and have kids, everything is fine. That’s what matters in our society, isn’t it? Getting married and having kids. Quality of life, emotional satisfaction, HAPPINESS: who cares about that? You MUST be happy if you are married and have kids.
But again, I digress. I was talking about homophobia. The great part about being a human is that you grow everyday. Well at least I did. I grew out of my homophobia. It was a gradual change though. A lot of factors helped in that change. Having non-homophobic friends helped. Reading about the issues helped. And getting to know few homosexuals also helped. Although being asked out by few of them didn’t. Or may be that helped too. But that’s another story.
Again, my point being, don’t judge anyone before you get to know them. It wouldn’t 
hurt you to open your mind just a bit. You might end up gaining a wonderful friend. Or may be you will be able to save an existing friendship. You never know..
Okay, yet another video clip. But not as impersonal as last few. I honestly never understood this video. As a kid I used to think that may be it’s an adult thing. That is, only adults can understand it and not the other adult thing. But now as an adult also I don’t get it.
Okay, down to specific questions: how do you spread the light of freedom? And what exactly is light of freedom? Does running with a torch helps in spreading the so-called light of freedom? And why does Sunil Gavaskar has to run in the rain?
Anyone?
I am speechless. Read this:
Essentials of journalism: Get facts. Get opinions. Get counter-opinions. Question everything.
Now here are (or what appear to be) the facts:
A seven-year-old girl is found dead inside a politician's car.
There are blood stains on her underwear.
Post-mortem report suggests 'smothering' as cause of death.
Police find out the child was also being treated for congenital heart disease.
Cop goes on record to suggest the girl died of a stroke, because of the heart disease. Explains away her presence in the politician's car by saying she must have felt sick and so crawled into the car to sleep.- (from Annie’s blog)
And most probably nothing will happen, yet again. I can’t think of any other “democracy” where something like this won’t become a public outrage except for the world’s largest one.
And then they claim “India is shining”. Really? Does progress just means doing economically well? Doesn’t it apply to social aspect of the society too? I think we as a society are stagnant. We are at least a century behind rest of the world. And worse: there is no effort being made to progress in that regard. The literate section of our society (use of literate instead of educated is intentional) can’t be bothered by such issues. They don’t have time for such stupid things; they are too busy making money. Hell, 50% of them don’t even read newspaper. What’s the use of being literate? But again, if they did read newspaper they will no longer be “just literate”. They might just become educated. And even the educated section of our society isn’t vocal enough. If they do feel enraged by such issues, they don’t express it. They don’t express it loudly. They don’t express it publicly. And unless we express that rage, we will never progress.
P.S.: This whole episode reminds me of a song from movie Pyaasa. The first ever song written about the plight of prostitutes. The song was:
“Jinhe naaz hai Hind par wo kaha hain?
Kaha hain, kaha hain, kaha hain?”
(Where are the people who are proud of India?
Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?)
I know it’s been a while since I wrote something meaningful here. All I have posted recently are videos, forwarded/junk mails and stuff. But if you are stuck in your room for past 2 months with nothing to do but except watching Buffy, the vampire slayer or read Harry Potter or sleeping, you don’t get much to write. Unless, of course, you want me to write about Buffy or Harry Potter or my recent dreams/night mares. Somehow I figured, no one wants to know about any of those. Hence all those videos and forwarded/junk mails and stuff.
I know I wanted a break for a long time now but this is too long a break. I need to work now. I am craving to go back to work. I am craving to go back to Karate. I am craving to take my camera and go out for a day. I am bored of being bored. I simply want my life back now…
This was shot for recruitment purpose but guess it doesn’t look very encouraging.
P.S.: 1. Yes, this is Stanford and they are from Stanford Kenpo Karate club.
2. I miss Kenpo :(
I am testing the Window writer. It seems pretty cool, that is, if it doesn’t mess with the blog.
I took this picture in Disney land last summer. Since I can’t walk these days (will tell about that in next few days), so I don’t have any new photos to post.
Enjoy this one till next time…
Update: I like Windows Writer. I can now embed the photos with the text which is pretty cool. I am thinking of starting a travel journal, that is, if I could ever leave my house again. :(
‘Pain Pain go away, Little Richie wants to play.”
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