Appraised

It is a very normal practice in various MNC's, where the forms are given out and self as well as senior appraisals and team appraisals and what not happens.
31st March, is THE deadly day.

I remember in school, it was THE day, when the final report card use to come and we used to hope that, we wouldn't be butchered alive by the time we reach home after the Parent Teacher Meets.

The fact of life is, that, 31st March still remains THE day in the life of all of us professionals, who work in a 'naukrai', that too private for a living. Unfortunately, life butchers you every year on this day and parents, spouses *girlfriends*, wherever applicable, just support you and encourage you to "Perform Better" *If I may use this term*


In a law practice, increment is heard of, but appraisals, well, you really don't have that sort of a thing here, not in litigation offices where there is no thikaana of the fees that will come.
How in the world can a lawyer then appraise, increase the salary- of his court clerk and his junior *if he has one*.

But thanks to the advent of the era of Law Firms, where there is no deen duniya imaan of the already not so likable profession of lawyers- Now the lawyers also have appraisals.
*Of course, considering, the new found breed of "Corporate Lawyers", actually work like they would work in a corporate- you know sending out updates, making presentations, putting the papers in order etc*, it has become highly commercial.
Hell, we have proper 'HR Firms', who deal with the Law Firms and putting their system together, but mind you, we ares till not 'Employees' but just "retainers".

So, I had my first EVER appraisal.
To be honest, I was more confused than ever, because in terms of everything, I am better than my contemporaries, but because, I came to the firm 8 months later than them, I am suffering a huge loss as far as the salary bit is concerned.
Rest, my partner in-charge is VERY happy with me *touch all the wood around me*  and that for me is a huge incentive over the other contemporaries that I have in the firm.
Our team follows the motto of 'Chota parivar, sukhi parivar' and trust me, we are happier like that. We are just 3, 4 if we include our secy, but we are politics free, and that is the way boss likes it.

I feel bad about being paid less than the rest, but the Bf and the dear Daddy and my Mommy are VERY happy about it, so I am burying the hatched right there.

Of course there are the unhappy around me, but then, I going to be absolute Zen about it, and not bother.

And, it seems that every in office is getting married, Ms. PK's was the biggest shocker, especially since the news/invite came right after we were given the much awaited envelopes! *Talk about timing, I tell you!*

So I have been appraised, the gossips have happened- and now its back to the 'gadhagiri' of being a lawyer!

Vicky Donor

First, kudos to the film-makers for taking up such a sensitive topic and then setting the same in a conservative, Hippocratic Delhi ka Lajpat Nagar, where the people mind more of other's business than their own.
Second, kudos to the audiences who have accepted the movie. As it is. No big names, no big sets and no  item numbers, I think, I like this movie the most amongst the ones that have released this year.

The story is as simple as it can get, an infertility specialist *who runs his clinic out of the very shady Darya Ganj*, a south delhi da punjabi munda bought up by a widow mother and grandmother, who is 25 and doesn't give a care *Doesn't want to join his tayaji's business, but knows the ins and outs of how to do the beauty treatment at his mother's parlour* and the beautiful banker babe, who is an independent working bengali girl.

The doctor needs a donor to save his clinic and Vicky's *sadde dilli da punjabi munda* great grandfather bore 19 children, the last one at the age of 78.
And, wham, starts the journey of the doctor to convince Vicky, that sperm donation is completely legal, and pays really well, both in "cash and kind".
After days and days of stalking, pestering and convincing sadda Vicky agrees to become a sperm donor, and that is when his life changes. From cash to kind, Vicky is now an earning member of the family.

While Vicky is donating his sperms, he is also wooooing the Girl of his dreams, Ashima Roy, a bengali babe who is a divorcee and does finally gives way to the charms of sadda Vicky. And in the background there are the expert comments via the dialogues exchanged between the super modern Beeji and typical punjabi mother *A atypical saas bahu, who drink their whiskey at the end of a long day*

The story is about how, the wife who could not get pregnant copes with the fact that her husband has fathered so many children. The movie was about accepting that and forging new mentalities and stronger relationships.

The apprehension of the sperm donation being a 'ganda dhanda' and the non society looking down at it... has been dealt with so much maturity, that it is hard to believe that this movie has been conceived by an Indian, and most of all, has been made into a commercial movie.

Each character was portrayed with an amazing amazing maturity, that is hard to believe...
Annu Kapoor as Dr. Baldev Chaddha;
Ayushman Khurana as Vicky the donor;
Yaami Gupta as Ashima Roy, the bengali babe;
Dolly ji as Vicky's Mom and;
Vicky's Beeji...
Each one of them makes you a part of a movie experience that makes you smile, cry and bring back home great memories of a movie that is well made!

Vicky to his Beeji, "Poori Delhi mein sirf do hi toh cheezein modern hain, ek Delhi ki metro aur doosri meri beeji"

PS: The favorite moments for me and my mum in the entire movie were when the Panju-Bengali wedding was taking place :P We just LOVED it :)

And, btw, my Mom thinks that this movie is totally oscar material, therefore in case you were planning to give the movie a miss, think again, go see it :)

  

Apologies

I have not logged in to blogger for like a whole week, which is not a nice thing!
All okay here, except that the work pressure is mounting and I have several deadlines to meet.

I promise to be back ASAP.
Till then- Miss ME! 

The Blackberry babe..

And Bf surprised me!
Honestly, now I feel, that I would rather not pester him about giving me gifts, considering, that when he decides to gifts me, he makes it large.
Remember the 'Unofficial' engagement ring? And the proposal?

This time he decided that it is high time that I change my phone.
That I needed an upgrade, and thus, he gifted me the new blackberry curve, nd not only that, he managed to keep it a surprise.
And, what more, he got a proxy gift also, you know to build the excitement.. it was all so cute :)

So, now, I have upgraded to a BB and a BB messenger, which basically means, that I am connected 24x7 to the world and the world is connected to me 24x7.
I am yet to get the office mail configured in the phone.. the day that happens, which will be day after, it will be a nightmare!
Just imagine having the office stalk me all the time :P

But never the less, I am just excited and more importantly, I am super touched by his gesture.. so just wanna say that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

The Telly story..

I have never really written about television and the little that I have written is about how much I hate the Hindi serials, which if nothing else have become bloody serial killers with over dramatic mother in laws and scheming sisters, sister in laws and in general the hate quotient.
Of course, then there is a stereotype that has been cast. There is absolutely no gray areas at all. The protagonist is the miss goody two shoes.. always and the rest can be evil and good at their own convenience.
Absolute nonsense they have made of the conscience that most of their moral lectures state!

So, the reasons that I do not watch watch the hindi serials, but yeah, I do follow them, I still don't own a television and parents and grandmother have the televisions at their disposal, so the most that I get is to watch a movie or two in ENGLISH once in a blue moon. * Do you have any idea, the faces that my mom makes at the kissing scenes.. I mean I was asked  ordered to not to go and watch the Dirty Picture because it has explicit content*  And I thought that I was 25. *Somehow this argument ALWAYS fails*

I mean everything is not that bad. As a matter of fact, by some stroke of luck, about two odd years back, 'Castle' was launched, and boom, I was thrown into the world of the English series that had sizzling chemistries and awesome mysteries!
That is where I learned the concept of 'Seasons', that meant that they give you a break from the series, after couple of weeks instead of making them jump 20 years hence. And mind you, they leave you with more questions than answers!
Since I have been hooked, I have been following a lot more than 'Castle'.. there is 'White Collar' and 'Warehouse 13' and 'Las Vegas' and 'How I met your Mother', amongst a few..
But the one that I have been lately following was 'Pretty Little Liars' and Kashvi will agree, they have actually closed season 2 with a disappointing end.
And, now that, Pretty Little Liars is over and so is White Collar and Castle will come to a close soon, I am feeling sorta depressed, you know, considering that I just love these three series and they were something that I looked forward to.. every week!
Now, I cant wait for Season 3 to start, which will be in June.
So till then, barring catching up with 7 seasons of 'Sex in the City', which I find is soft porn, there is nothing that I can watch.. so does anyone here have any suggestions as to what series should I start following??

PS: This song from Lady Antebellum was playing in the background in one of the scenes in the Season finale of Pretty Little Liars, fell in love with it totally :)




PPS: Will catch up on all the blogs through this weekend! 

I sorta hate March

No nothing personal.
See, now that Sachin has made his 100th 100 and all and I don't have any exams during this month, it doesn't seem that bad.. but NOW I have something worse that I have to agonize over the whole of March- 'Appraisals and Budgets'


The Cousin's wedding went well. I was a little detached, apart from the dancing bit, but somehow, I did not feel the need to be there. Obviously a million people asked about Sister and Me (We were dancing away to glory). The part about the wedding that I loved the most was- That mum actually pushed us to get our hair done, including hers for two occasions a thing that we normally don't indulge in.
And for both the occasions all three of us looked lovely :)

The thing that I abhorred about the wedding was the absolute vulgar display of lena-dena. My cousin's parents actually gave her the usual gamut of TV, Fridge..etc. My question here being, that she is marrying the only son of the house.. so wouldn't he already have a refrigerator, TV, Washing machine etc. Honestly, waste of money. And not only that, cousin's family gave almost everyone in the boys family clothes and cash.. and my chachi made sure that all of it is captured in camera. 
The bride was glowing and was super happy.. her outfits, unfortunately did not impress me much. Her taste is too much of blingy bling for me!

But like they say, a girl's wedding once over, over properly without a hitch is a blessing in itself. And that happened. My chacha chachi left no stone unturned for making this one big massive Indian wedding. There was the revolving stage and automatic flower showers and what not!
I wish my cousin a VERY HAPPY and a Blissful life ahead.

***************************************************************************

Last couple of days have been really disturbing. The world it seems is pushing itself to an end, that may or may not happen.
It has become a free for all.
The recent incidents of Rape in Gurgaon and subsequent reactions to the same by the Gurgaon administrations have left me, fuming.
The attitude seems to be, that instead of setting a precedent of punishing the rapists, and attacking the mentality itself, you are curbing the women and the rest of the people who enjoy the after hours.
If you know that there are vulnerable areas in your city that require more attention, then deploy more force, give more protection, increase the lighting and install CCTV cameras.
But the fact that the administration issued statements that include giving deadlines to Pubs etc, and especially the statement about women not working after 8pm. *Considering that there is no guarantee that there wont be any rapes between 8 am to 8pm*

The Governments and especially the administration should be extremely ashamed of themselves for brushing off the responsibility.

The first thing that needs to change is the attitude of 'Women invite rapes'  NO woman in her righ mind wants herself to be assaulted and insulted. So, if a woman wears low hanging tops and short skirts, is because she likes to dress up like that and not because she wants men to hit upon her. There has to be a way to give a smack to anyone who leches! The solution is NOT having the women wear burqua, but somehow educating the males that the women that they are lusting about has a family too.

The next thing that my boss suggested was about 'Female Bonding' that how we women are our biggest enemies. We gossip about other women, and never trust another female, thus making us vulnerable. Women, should stop being judgmental and help out if needed. Core support groups need to be formed!

But, most of all, we women need to get our heads right. Honestly, I am not pointing fingers, but mothers who are abused at home have to teach their children that what is being done to her is wrong, and that women are to be respected, and they HAVE to start standing up.
Educating your boys more than the girls will really help.
Another thing that I have noticed is, that most of the rapes, happen in the lower strata of the society, therefore, it is imperative that, that part of the society breaks free from their vicious circles!

The mood obviously became more somber, when I heard about Baby Falak's death. The poor baby, who tried surviving the world that was so cruel to her is finally resting in some peace. The thing that this little 2 year old did, could not have ever been done, thanks to her and the support that she commanded, that the police were put into action and they were able to unearth a dirty racket of human trafficking!

The budget further made sure that eating out becomes lesser of an option for us, thanks to the increase in the Service tax and excise, so now, we shall have to have more house parties!

The brightest of the day was Sachin's 100th Ton again the Bangladeshis and that sorta lifted the spirits!

The month is still half left, and then there is the salary that needs to be regulated.

Life is tough!
And I HATE March.

Update!

This cousin of mine is getting married this weekend and I am dead sure that I will not be able to blog and/or catch up on the lovely blogs ye all have written.

So will catch up next week for sure!
Have a Happy Weekend folks!