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What Makes a Hero?

April 4, 2011

I was driving somewhere after work on Friday and happened to have the radio dial on the local KQED station. A story came up about the Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo. I’m sure most people have heard of him – he was the one in charge of the Stanford Prison Experiments where normal students were given [...]

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All I Need To Know About Cricket is What I Learned From Lagaan

March 29, 2011

Pakistan is in the semi-finals for the Cricket World Cup! This is huge folks! That’s what I’m told anyways. I’m very limited in my “Pakistani-ness” (for further details, check out my previous post “Are you down with the brown?”) Back in 1998, I remember sitting with the siblings and cousins in my uncle’s living room [...]

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Out of the Comfort Zone and *Gasp* Talking to Strangers

March 9, 2011

I sometimes write for the online magazine Illume. My contributions consist mostly of reviews but I was asked to do an interview with the writer/director of the last movie I reviewed, Mooz-lum. Here’s the issue – I’ve never conducted an interview before. I never really wanted to mostly because I don’t know how to (it’s [...]

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Fearing the Unknown

March 3, 2011

On my commute to work this morning, I did what I usually do before I start reading my book – I check out updates on Facebook and Twitter. One coworker had posted a video that the Council for Arabic Islamic Relations (CAIR) compiled of people protesting Muslims at an event last month in Orange County. [...]

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Au Revoir, Borders

February 20, 2011

I got an email the other day through Borders Rewards that told me that the Fremont Borders store is closing and that there will be a sale going on. I thought it was a joke – the place where I had spent so much time was closing? Say it ain’t so!! I knew about the [...]

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It’s Supposed to be Just Another Day

December 20, 2010

I usually write about light and fluffy things but sometimes I just need to get stuff out so the following post is a bit personal. For some reason, it all feels anonymous when I write something up here instead of having to talk about it with someone so feel free to skip this. Seriously, a-okay. [...]

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T-S-A! T-S-A!

November 18, 2010

I haven’t really been following the news lately so when all of these TSA/security check/body scanner/pat-down stories cropped up in my Twitter feed over the last couple of days, I figured something was up for everyone to get so riled up. I initially thought that maybe the masses are coming to the aid of those [...]

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Going from Urdish to Urdu

October 20, 2010

In the summer of 1998, we spent about 6 weeks in Karachi, Pakistan visiting family. It was hot and many days were spent indoors, lazing around and watching TV. Once, a cousin turned to the siblings and me and warned us that the Urdu used in the program we were about to watch may be [...]

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Stoic No More

September 6, 2010

I’ve got a bit of a confession to make – I never used to think much of kids. It’s not like I didn’t like them, just that I was indifferent to them. When people cooed over someone’s baby, I merely shrugged my shoulders and allowed for only a noncommittal grunt when one mentioned that the [...]

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Definitely NOT Another Quiet Day at Work

August 21, 2010

[NOTE: Since I don't usually blog about work, coworkers' first initials are only used] Thursday started off quietly enough. It was past 12 and I was sitting at my desk, staring at the computer and trying to think about the fastest way to go about the task at hand when T showed up at my [...]

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