Filling Tax return is Taxing no more

Does the term filing income tax return makes you break into cold sweat? Does the income tax deadline date give you sleepless nights? Or are you in the category of people who are simply ignorant about the idea of filing their income tax return.

I have news for you. If you aspire to go abroad for better career prospects then one of the essential documents to be enclosed is a copy of the income tax return. In the absence of such information a large number of countries reject a persons VISA application.

Another important aspect of filing an income tax return is that whenever a person applies for a loan, the loan giving agency such as bank or a financial company wants to establish your credit worthiness. They want to see if a person has a means of income to payback the loan. This is where a copy of ITR or income tax return comes in handy. It establishes the information as to how much a person earns and based on this information the lending company or bank processes the loan application. Therefore all those people who do not file income tax returns may forget the chances of getting a loan as their application would automatically be rejected in the absence of a copy of the income tax return.

A lot of people feel that filing an income tax return is a cumbersome process. For all these people I have good news.H&R block is a e-filing platform that makes your job of filing your return very easy. A few clicks of the mouse to send in your details to H&R block and their experts would do the job for you.

By filing an income tax return one is not only doing ones duty but is also doing our bit to help the country progress. It is with these taxes that the government collects from us citizens that it builds roads,hospitals and initiates so many other citizen welfare and nation building activities.

This makes one a responsible citizen of the country.

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 “I’m taking the #TaxPledge to file IT returns with the easy Income Tax efiling option from H&R Block at BlogAdda.”

Lets play Holi One more time

I was always a shy girl always living my life according to the rule book. I was the perfect role model or at least that is what I tried to be and I must confess with quite a bit of success to such an extent that my mother would refer to me as a role model for my siblings to emulate. This would have been the story of my life had it not been for one day of the year when the rule book would be thrown and drowned in a bucket full of the fastest colors that would be available in the market.

This was the day when I with a Sita like demure would turn into a tomboyish Gita.

My preparations for Holi would start normally 2-3 days in advance. The first step used to be to request my mother to help me decide the set of clothes that would be worn by me on the day of Holi. After all these would be no ordinary clothes for by the end of the day they would not look the same and when the Holi celebrations ended these clothes would be covered with a multitude of colors and in most cases would be beyond recognition. Yet our maid would always ask me to hand them over to her as the ingenious lady had found a very effective use for my Holi battered clothes . She would use them and turn them into a scare crow to ward off the birds that would come to eat the grains that were spread out to dry in the sun on our roof top. My mother being concerned about my well being always gave me those clothes to be worn on the day of Holi that would cover me almost entirely with the minimal amount of body being exposed to the colors of Holi. Apart from this precaution she would apply a generous amount of oil to my hair ,face,hands and any other part of the body which may come in contact with the Holi colors. At least two days before Holi my pichkari would be taken our of the store room and its innards would be drenched in oil so that it would work flawlessly on the day of the great battle of colors called Holi.

Since our house was at a considerable height then the rest of the houses in our lane, it gave me somewhat of a vantage point when it came to playing Holi. The terrace used to be my well guarded fortress from where I would drench the passer by's with colors. Then when my friends would come we could move to the still higher terrace and it would be here that the festival of Holi would be played from the early mornings to late evenings. It used to end only when my parents gave us the ultimatum to stop playing with water and colors that the festivities would stop. However by now I would resemble more of a street urchin drenched to the core and covered with so many different colors that in most cases my parents would have to scrub a couple of children clean before they could recognize my face.

Now a days Holi has been reduced to greeting people via SMS, phones .or Whatsapp.

However these mediums of communication fail to convey the spirit of undiluted fun that one used to experience in my childhood days. Without all the fun Holi has become a day wasted rather then being the most fun day of the entire year.This year I am going to organize a Holi get together at my place with the theme #KhulKeKheloHoli. Even though there may not be the need to make a scare crow as there are no more wet grains to be dried on the terrace. Yet the Gita in me does deserve to see the light of the day and live life to the fullest and play holi like there is no tomorrow.

“I’m pledging to #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my Holi memories at BlogAdda in association with Parachute Advansed.”

Bura Na Mano Holi Hai

There was once a time when it was difficult to distinguish faces covered with the fast colors, Hair that were still covered with a multitude of colors for days if not weeks and hands which remained in a shade of magenta only to become pink after several days of rubbing and scrubbing were not taboos instead these were the trophies of Holi which we all cherished and displayed with a lot of pride. It used to be considered to be a matter of great honor among the neighboring children and the fellow students as to whose color remained on some body part or the body or the other for the maximum number of days. It meant that this person has had the maximum fun on that years Holi day.

What fun it used to be. I have many fond memories of Holi . It was the day when being simple was boring, naughty became the new cool. We friends used to get together and form a group or a toli. Our group or toli would be the guardians of our lane who would be armed with water pistols and buckets of water and color. Our goal used to be to defend our lane from other intruding groups of boys and girls. We would use our water pistols and pichkari's to ward off such invasions. However these battles between all the group of children were in good fun, there used to be no animosity or hatred. Care was taken that no one got hurt. By lunch time it was time to declare ceasefire and all the toli's or teams would merge to form a bigger group and together we would take a round of the entire locality eating sweets and savories and enjoying cutting jokes and having lots of fun.Many years have passed now. We have outgrown the age for those battles with water guns yet we meet and greet . For some reason the festivities of Holi have lost the sheen in terms of being a community festival instead it has got reduced to merely a holiday. The most sought after festival which used to be awaited by all is no longer the most awaited day of the year. I feel sad feeling about all the fun we are losing out on by not playing Holi.

This year we would be recreating those happy times so that we can relive those happy memories and the young ones can play out those mock Holi battles and see for themselves what fun they can have this Holi so let us all get together and say

#KhulKeKheloHoli. Let us all experience what fun the festival of Holi can bring into our lives.

“I’m pledging to #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my Holi memories at BlogAdda in association with Parachute Advansed.”

Never Break the Teesri Kasam

When we started dating my would be husband always tried to be at his best behavior always trying to impress me with chocolates, ice cream treats and movie outings. He seemed to be a nice easy to like guy and we hit it off really well. Then I decided to pay him a visit. To my utter shock his room was in a mess. Things were strewn all over the place ,there were dirty dishes and clothes littered all over the place. I was very disappointed by this aspect of his. Yet I went ahead and tidied up the place for him thinking that it was a one off thing. However the next time I visited him his place was just as untidy as I had seen it in the first place. This made me very angry and I gave him the ultimatum either ME or your Untidy days . So the first Kasam that #SadaSexy took for me was to keep the house clean and tidy.

Soon we got married and like a lot of married couples started getting a lot of visitors at home. Since my husbands side of the extended family is quite large we used to get a large number of visitors from his side of the family. Like a dutiful wife I was looking after the guests and cooking endless meals in the kitchen. Perhaps it was all the Seva I did of all the guests that I got the tag of being a good cook and more and more guests started flocking to our place. However now there used to be requests to cook dishes of their choice . The requests would invariably go like this last time when your husbands Mama ji had come you had made those Dahi bhalla's . Now that your husbands Chachi has come so won't you cook those Dahi bhalla's for me. All these requests burdened me with work and I had no way of getting out of this vicious cycle of requests .So ultimately when I got on the verge of a breakdown I took the Kasam from my husband & #SadaSexy that he should help me in all the household chores including the kitchen specially when guests come over.This was the second kasam from him that helped me sail through the first few days of marriage and soon things settled down. However on the first Anniversary of our wedding he disappointed me by not wishing me in the morning .I thought that like a lot of husbands he too had forgotten our wedding anniversary. Then at lunch time the door bell rang and upon opening the door I found my husband standing there. He was holding a paper envelope which he extended towards me. I was perplexed . I opened the envelope and inside I found a single slip of paper and it read. #Kasam # 3: I will always stand by you . My #SadaSexy husband had floored me once again. Many years have passed since that day but kasam se our relation has become stronger with each passing day and our marriage stands firm on the pillars of the #3 Kasams that my husband took and never broke.

“I’m blogging about the kasams I want from my man this Women’s Day with the #SadaSexy activity at BlogAdda in association with Set Wet.”

my best birthday gift

Music has been a common bond between me and my beau. The moment I say this I cannot help but recognize the somewhat quirky side of my #SadaSexy . Throughout the year he dresses up to impress me and his hair style specially when he makes that puff a la Elvis Presley Puff and croons the melodious number is something to die for that has got him quite a few fan following who are mostly girls. If this were not enough to make him my proud possession and also jealous some times is the fact that whenever my birthday or our anniversary approaches he begins to put a lot of oil in his hair and his Elvis puff gets transformed into a K.L.Sehgal hair style. If this was not enough he becomes a living incarnation of K.L Sehegal himself. Now do not get me wrong I have nothing against the great singer . In fact I love his singing however try to imagine the predicament of a girl whose boyfriend suddenly dons the avatar of K.L. Sehgal and starts singing “Hum Jeekar Kya Karenge Jab Dil Hi toot Gaya” which translates to What is the purpose of living with a broken heart. This is the song he sings for me in front of all my friends at my birthday party. It is very embarrassing and uncalled for choice of a song when every thing between me and him is quite well and hunky dory. This makes our made for each other jodi appear as a combination of Chalk and Cheese. I fail to understand what triggers this transform in him at the time of my birthday and our anniversaries. So last birthday when he said he wanted to make my birthday special it set the alarm bells ringing for me and I thought it was time to put a stop to this embarrassing repeated act of his and to have a heart to heart discussion with him .So at the first opportunity I donned my drama queen avatar and belted out dialogues

Bangla,Gadi,Rupiya Paisa mujhe chahiye par pehle chahiye ek wada Kasam khao ki tum Meri birthday aur hamari anniversary par na K.L. Sehgal ki tarah bal chiptaoge na unke dard bhare gaane gaoge” Meaning that on my birthday and on our anniversaries neither would by boyfriend stick his hair nor sing the sad songs of Mr. K.L. Sehgal. It was a Meena Kumari performance that shook him out of his wits and he had no choice and take this Kasam and promise me that he would not be donning the avatar of Mr. K.L. Sehgal. However on the day of my birthday I waited for him but he was nowhere to be found. Everyone had gathered at my place and were asking me to cut the cake and I was waiting for my guy . Then suddenly the lights went off and I heard a familiar voice and the words I heard were ….

Nothing gonna change my love for you ...It was my guy singing that soulful song and sweeping me off my feet once again.

“I’m blogging about the kasams I want from my man this Women’s Day with the #SadaSexy activity at BlogAdda in association with Set Wet.”  

Men its time you shared the load

Who does the laundry in your home? The women of course, as they are the ones who are delegated this work. The task of doing the grubby, grimy and tiring work is always a woman/s lot. A woman is supposed to do all kinds of work from cleaning the home, cooking and serving breakfast, preparing meals, entertaining guests and keeping the linen and clothes sparkling and clean. No one ever stops to give it a second thought, giving a helping hand is beyond the imagination of the men folk. They have always seen their mother and grandmother toiling with these tasks. As a child they have been taught that this is not a task for them and even if they ever attempted to do their own laundry or try to help they were hustled away from the scene of action saying that laundry was a woman’s task. So the very thought was killed before it could take birth. The idea got rooted in their minds that laundry is always a woman’s task. With the passage of time they became firm believers that laundry and women go hand in hand.
This is the common scenario in nearly every household. Women do all the work while the men loll on the sofa watching TV or solving crosswords. Women have taken all this in their stride and have never thought of complaining. Even when they have hinted for some help they have only got disdainful looks in return.
The scene in my home was quite different. A fulltime dhobi used to come and take a bundle full of dirty clothes and come back with a pack of freshly starched clean clothes. My mother only had to check the clothes from the list of clothes that had been given to the washer man. The heavy curtains, sheets and sarees along with my father’s shirts and pants were taken care of by a male dhobi. It never crossed my mind that laundry was a woman’s task alone. How ever when in need we did wash a set of our clothes. I along with my brother not only helped in rinsing the clothes in soap water but also loved to wring them and put them on the clothesline to dry. Working together in doing the laundry always made us happy and relaxed. We never burdened our mother with the task of doing the laundry all alone. We were always by her side to give her a helping hand. We believe in the concept of #ShareTheLoad and have been a part of it for many years.
Now Ariel and BlogAdda have brought into the limelight the plight of numerous women who have been working as slaves bonded to the chains of laundry. I am hopeful and rather sure that such a campaign would bring a great change in the lives of many women because I am sure that the men would give a serious thought to this issue and give a helping hand to their mother and wife by #ShareTheLoad. Even the mothers would not shy away from the thought of teaching their children girls and boys alike to give a helping hand with the laundry. You can now expect to see more smiling women who do not have the burden of the laundry as someone is there to #ShareTheLoad

 “I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”

Show you care by sharing the load

The human race loves to excel in whatever they do, be it rock climbing, sailing para gliding or any task that requires endurance and persistence. These tasks are not gender based and open to both the sexes. With this perspective it is quite strange that the task of doing laundry is considered to be solely a woman’s role. Do the men consider this job to be too demeaning or menial for them to be a part of?
There are two main reasons for this attitude of theirs, their male superiority and the concept passed from generation to generation that laundry is a woman’s job. They have always seen the women of their household performing this task. They were never taught by their mothers how to wash their clothes or even #ShareTheLoad by giving a helping hand to them. Thus this notion has become fixed in their minds that laundry is only a woman’s job. They have become so accustomed to this thought that they find it difficult to break away from it.
Another reason for this thought fixation is the TV commercials advertising for different brands of detergents. These ads are women oriented who are shown discussing the brightness of one brand against another. There are some ads which show women talking about the amount of detergent powder required by them for that perfect cleaning. Even cine stars are shown advertising for a brand by claiming that their wives use a particular brand for their laundry. The stress in all these ads is upon the role of women who look after the laundry. It is but natural that constant viewing of such ads strengthens the belief that laundry is a women only task.
It is now the times to break free from these beliefs and form the concept of #ShareTheLoad. Giving a helping hand would not rob the men of their male superiority. It would only help to create a feeling of harmony and the women would feel cared for and looked after. After all women are not slaves but their partners and working together would better their understanding of each other. This helping hand would strengthen their bonds of love. If such a small act can increase the happiness of the household then it’s really worth it as it means more stable marriages. This would ensure less broken homes. If doing laundry together can achieve this miracle then all those men who care for their mothers sisters and wives should not hesitate but step forward and advocate the policy of #ShareTheLoad.
Ariel a well known detergent brand and BlogAdda have come forth with a campaign which propagates that men should come forward to show they care by #ShareTheLoad

 “I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”