If you are a Washingtonian Persian, “Ganje Gharoon Nemikham” is a fantastic musical comedy for you to see. The show directed by Farzan Deljou starring Anthony Shams aka Eslam the Comic, the Farglish (Farsi + English) standup comedian and actor who used to be a Washingtonian himself till the late 80′s when he moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream.
The show is full of laugh from the beginning to the end! I saw it last month in LA. It’s in Farsi. So, you have 19 days to learn the language Read more of this post
What you are about to read is all the advice I’ve been ignoring from the loved ones around me for the past 15 years. Wearing my engineering hat, I’ve added some additional information that I have recently learned. I did my best to make the connection between stress, diet, attitude, the cells in our body, yoga, meditation, and cancer. The article is based on my own battle with cancer, feedback from several oncologists, hematologists, and nutritionists from various countries and meeting other cancer patients ranging in age from 16 to 60. YES! 16 years old girl! Cancer these days has nothing to do with age. So, I hope you are not a moron like me and that at least some of you will listen to the tips here and change your diet.
As a serial entrepreneur who recently beat cancer and been following the story of some other entrepreneurs including Steve Jobs who unfortunately lost his life to cancer, Amit Gupta who is currently battling Leukemia, and a few other close and young friends who also lost their life to various type of cancers including a very dear friend of mine just last week, I found it necessary to blog about my case. I hope the story of my life saves the lives of others and that it is a wakeup call for all of you. Read more of this post
I moved to LA from DC about 19 years ago to pursue my acting and standup comedy career.
Prior my move to LA, I had moved from Iran to Gaithersburg, MD (thirty minutes drive outside DC), right before the American hostages were taken in Iran in 1979. The American government put a freeze on Iranian assets. I had about $18,000.00 in the First National Bank of Maryland and I could not use a penny of it. There was a Korean girl in my English class in Montgomery college who worked in Kentucky Fried Chicken in Gaithersburg. Realizing my financial situation, she decided to help me out by sneaking KFC’s biscuits to me without her boss’s knowledge. I took those biscuits and put ketchup on them and enjoyed them as they were T-Bone steaks. This went on for three months. I had one meal a day that was made of three biscuits, ketchup and Persian spice Sumac. Read more…
I was a 19 year old Iranian when I was drafted to the Iran/Iraq War back in 1983, one of the bloodiest Wars of the 20th Century. Incidentally, the entire world, the former US defense secretary Rumsfeld and his boss, Reagan were supporting Saddam at the time:
A few days prior to one of our major strategic moves, about 200 Iranian soldiers, myself included, were rounded up to listen to an “inspirational speech” from a Mullah and two of his non clerical lieutenants. They were preparing us not to fear death.
The Mullah and his lieutenants started telling us about the heaven, the awesome time we will be having with seventy two virgins, and how desperately the virgins are looking forward to meet us up there. As a typical man, it got me excited first, you know. The thought of 72 chicks but the excitement lasted only a few seconds. The though of death, the thought of not seeing my fat mamma, my baby sisters, and fathers anymore, by far were more powerful than anything else. Maybe, if the Mullah had said sex with thousand women, it would have been different story But, 72! NO SIR! not enough to die for.
Saeed, the guy sitting right in the middle with the mustache, one of my very good friends made a joke about the virgins as the Mullah was still yapping. He said “wait a sec! but, I want to have sex down here on earth, not up there!”. Although, we were scared young soldiers with the thought of possibly getting killed in a few days, Saeed, me, and five other guys were literally hysterical about the situation. We laughed our pants off. But, this wasn’t a joking matter to them. So, all seven of us were yanked out of the unit and sent to the Army prison for a week because of the laughter. The punishment wasn’t really a week of going to prison, the thing is for every week of going to prison during the service, the Army added one additional month on top of our standard two years. Once released; sadly, we found out 125 other soldiers in the units were killed in the attack.
Neither I nor any of my other six friends would have fallen for the sex with seventy two virgins crap anyway, but the joke totally made one of the lieutenant and most of the surviving soldiers in our units rethink our motivations. We all continued talking and laughing about it for a few months. I am certain the lieutenant who was an ideologically changed man with fresh ideology was able to influence others in the system as well. I never saw him again. If he is still alive and reads this, I wish him well. As for my friend who made the joke, regretfully, he lost his life 3 months later in another attack – in fact a chemical attack, (the materials were given to Saddam Hussein by the US Government, and I think the Germans, to be more specific, the Dow Chemical Company).
About 2 million people including my very close cousin who was an army parashooter were killed during the 8 year war (1980-1988):
Curious as to what this personal story has anything to do with current U.S. State Department initiatives and diplomacy? Read more…
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Elias Shams
Kamran Abdi
Tatiana Sorabi
