Make-up Mess On My Engagement Day

The day of my engagement had dawned. Draped in a dark beatroot kanjeeveram saree I felt like a beauty queen. My mother and siblings seconded my views. ‘You look gorgeous’ said my mother. (Yeah! I was nothing less than an Aishwarya Rai for my mother.) I was on cloud nine.

However, a phone call from Max after the engagement ceremony shook me up from my dreams. “What had you done on your face,” taunted Max from the other end.  ‘Your make-up was monstrous today, and did you get that dirt off your face? He inquired, with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.

I didn’t like the way he spoke to me.  So, without wasting a minute I lashed out at him, left, right and center. I spat out as much venom as possible through the phone.

This phone call from my fiancée became a conclusive proof for me that your people are your people, after all. That is your mother and siblings. They will appreciate and applaud you, and be by your side, come what may. I must be really looking good on the day of engagement. Why would my mother and sister lie to me, after all? Of course, layers and layers of concealer and foundation were applied by the beautician to cover up all those blemishes and innumerable pimples on my face to better my looks. And I believed all that make-up made me look best among the rest.

Now in hindsight, that is after a couple of years, when I look through my engagement pics I feel, my make-up was undoubtedly loud. And while looking through Max’s eyes, it was somewhat monstrous as well. 

Two Golden Gifts From God – Aryan n Ayaansh

5 Special Gifts That’ll Help Safeguard Their Future

Just 20 days ago I was blessed with my second sweet little bundle of joy − Ayansh. My cutie pie turns 20 days old today and the first best gift that we as responsible parents have bestowed upon him on his arrival on this earth was to get his umbilical cord preserved. We did this because we were told that the preservation of umbilical cord would safeguard our child from various life threatening diseases such as cancer, thalesemia, diabetes and lots more. More than anything else, even my elder son Aryan would benefit from this preservation, we were told. So without giving way to afterthoughts we decided to get Ayansh’s umbilical cord preserved for a decent sum.

I know in case of Ayansh we set things off in the right track by preserving his umbilical cord, now the next big step, I as a concerned parent who’s worried about her kids future would be to get a child’s insurance policy. I and my hubby have been contemplating on taking HDFC’s Children’s Plan since we had Aryan in our midst eight years back, but so far haven’t done anything about it. Now with the arrival of Ayansh I believe things will have to move on a war footing.

The third best gift I believe would be to introduce my kids to the world of Books. Books have been a source of inspiration for me and I believe a single good book is equivalent to a 100 friends. And I want my kids to follow suit. Books are an epitome of knowledge and intelligence. It’s one of the best investments I as a parent would love to make on my kids; and not on gold and diamonds. Such valuables can be stolen but values and wisdom gained from books stays with you forever.   

The fourth best gift that comes to my mind is Higher Education.  These days, everyone seems busy getting a masters degree for him or herself. In other words, everyone is busy studying hard. Now to make my kids stand tall among the rest, I wish to be instrumental in helping them bag the best degrees from highly renowned and influential colleges. If they have the aptitude and the spirit, I may don’t have to do much, just a wee bit of financial help will do, and they on their own would make it. 

Last but not the least: Good Values. Every day, our news channels and newspapers are filled with negative stories. Stories of rape, murders, cheating, killing, kidnapping so on and so forth, dominate the media channels.  Since our kids are growing up in this hostile environs it’s difficult to keep them away from these happenings. So the best thing that I can do for them so that they could make out good from the bad, right from the wrong, is by making them aware of good values.  For this, I’d inspire my kids to read the Bible, attend Sunday masses, and read other spiritual and moral books. I’ve been doing this and it has been helping me a lot and I believe this is something which even my kids could gain from.

These are the first five gifts that came to my mind immediately on seeing the title for this post. Hopefully, with God's grace, I wish to gift these precious gifts to my darling lil ones sooner than later.

Cheers   

This post is a part of the 1001 Gifts Activity by HDFC Life in association with BlogAdda

Tyrant Toms Terrorizing Jerrys

Media, these days, has its daggers drawn out against some tyrant Toms and rightly so: starting off with the Tejpal case to the newbie on the block, the retired Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly. (Here the culprits have followed one definite pattern though, targeting the juniors; because vahan shayad dal jaldi gale.)

Both Tejal and Ganguly have been accused of sexually harassing their juniors. When Tejpal’s case was out in the open, I was smiling away gleefully; at least …at least someone had the courage to spill her guts and pull the rug off from a high-flying boss’s feet. At least, at least, someone this time had supporting parents who didn’t mind their daughter playing the role of a victim cum protagonist in a sexual harassment case. At least, at least someone this time had not let ‘sab chalet hai' attitude come in her way of seeking justice and  then blindly sweeping the incident under the carpet.

Anyway, I am damn sure; this was not one of rare incidents. The bosses’ misdoings must be famous all along among his acquaintances and friends.  While most of them might have turned a blind eye to his immoral acts, some might as well have given in to his wild fancies. After all, the entire question boils down to who’ll the bell the cat? Specifically, when the cat here in question is mighty powerful and comes with political strings attached.  What is difficult to digest though is how come the watchdogs of democracy who frame and propagate laws, even sexual harassment laws for that matter, so easily distance themselves from the very laws they had come to be associated with?        

The retired Supreme Court judge AK Ganguly was reported to have made sexual advances towards his intern, despite her clear and vocal disapproval. The advances were made on her on Christmas Eve last year at Delhi’s Le Meredian Hotel.  It is being reported that the intern literally ran out of the hotel room, while the judge followed her down to lobby offering apologies.

Both these men come under the fatherly and grandfatherly figure category. The Jerrys' must be of their daughter’s age.  Apparently, what appears from both these cases is that it’s easy to victimize junior most employees, who are yet to familiarize themselves with the ways of the corporate world.

That said, even senior female employees are not safe from the evil designs of their bosses. My hubby once mentioned that his boss, an oldie and an IIM graduate at that, had proposed to one of the senior most female employee.  Nope, she was not unmarried. In fact, she was a mother to two adorable kids. Nope, she never wore skimpy clothes. In fact, she was always draped in complete 9 yards. Nope, she never once showed any inclination towards any relationship. In fact, on hearing her boss’ indecent proposal, she decided to opt for ‘work from home’ option.

Okay, agreed, there may be several women who’d love to climb on the back of their bosses and then stand on their shoulders to climb up the corporate ladder, but that doesn’t mean all women are cut from the same cloth and will give into bosses unreasonable fantasies and demands.

I hope, these two high-profile cases awaken all wayward bosses from their slumber and don’t take a women’s dignity for granted. I hope, these two powerful men get an appropriate comeuppance for outraging a women’s modesty outrightly.