G-A-P

I feel amused when I thank my friends and they respond in a pleasantly annoyed tone with ‘one doesn’t thank friends’. That sets the thinking gears of my mind in motion. If we cannot and should not thank our friends, whom else would we thank?! If I am not going to feel gratitude for the good things and good people in my life, what else have I got to be happy about?! I always believe that most of the troubles of today’s so-called modern world emanate from a lack of GAP – Gratitude, Apologies and Politeness. Or, in much simpler terms, the declining usage of words like, ‘Thank You’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Please’. And, this behavior from my friends only makes my assumption strong. Let me elaborate.

Why is it being considered a mere formality when one thanks someone else – be it friends or anyone else? I have this habit of thanking the conductor when he gives me the ticket. I have this habit of greeting the server when he offers me a glass of water or fills my plate with whatever dish I had ordered for. I thank the doorman who opens the door for me when I visit the big restaurants. I, these days, literally thank anyone and everyone who does something or the other for me. I have even made it a point to thank my mother when she makes a steaming hot cup of tea for me amidst all her busy work. (Let me tell you a secret. I am yet to drink as special and as tasty a tea as the one that my mother makes. May be the ingredient of love makes it that way, but I digress.)

It all, I believe, happens due to the belief that we are the most special ones on this planet and all the other people/beings are here to serve and please us. If we look deep, nobody has any such obligation to do anything for us, except as an act of love - love for us or for something/someone else. And, we humans have this strange attitude of taking anything and everything for granted, till the moment of truth of losing that person/object strikes us hard like a sledgehammer.

Just because someone is our friend does not mean s/he has to do something for us. Whenever they do something for us, no matter how little an act it may be, let us all learn to appreciate the same and acknowledge it then and there. And, let us start proving our gratitude for the things and people that we are blessed with, by offering genuine, heartfelt thanks, instead of a mere mumbled utterance. Think of it – who doesn’t want to be thanked in a loud voice and a big smile?!

There is no need for me to offer any points about the importance of offering apologies and acting politely. All of us know the same, though very few of us act with that knowledge in our consciousness. Let us try using the G-A-P words for a day and I am sure we will all start seeing how our life and the surroundings change, when we offer genuine words of gratitude, apologies and politeness.

Remember, nobody is here to do anything for us, with any obligation to do so. Whatever others do for us is an act of love and nothing else. Thank people when they are with you, apologize when you are wrong – at times, even when you aren’t because people (the right ones) are more important than any argument, no matter how important the argument might seem to you at the moment – and ask with politeness, by using more of ‘please’.

While we may continue to keep taking things/people for granted, Life can take away them all in one quick swoop, leaving us wondering behind as to what happened. So, let me start by thanking you all for reading this and apologizing for whatever pain I had caused for you, if I had ever.

Please. Sorry. Thank you!

:-)