Tag Archives: Thank You

Sorry and Thank you!

No sorry, no thank you in friendship

– Prem

The golden lines were said by Salman Khan in the movie ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ to Bhagyashree whom he fancied as his girlfriend and then his wife (important because of Rajshri!). That ruined the basic courtesy people had got left in them till that point and since then it has only declined further.

Call me a mood-spoiler but I am not necessarily a big fan of special days for special things. Today for instance is ‘Michchhāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)’, a Jainism related day on which people ask for forgiveness for any kind of unintentional or intentional misdeeds they might or might not have committed. Same way, there’s Thanksgiving in the US. It is intended to be thankful and shows gratitude to others.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

As we know, people are mightly clever as they may think that saying sorry for one day gives them the right to be a nuisance on other days. (As they say after partaking 1000 rats, the cat went on pilgrimage.) Anyways nowadays Sneezing is capital punishment but if I sneeze and then say sorry to the other person, who is currently busy in sanitizing herself or himself (and reporting me to authorities), will my sorry even matter?

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

Or saying Thank you for trivial things like keeping the door open for the person coming behind you (which is considered a big deal). That’s so basic that if not done, that should itself call for name-calling bluntly. The other day, kids were playing Badminton outside my apartment and the shuttlecock fell into my balcony. I gave it back to them instantly but then they went on with their business without Thank You. For an instant, I was almost about to thank then instead for not shouting “Uncle, can you please throw the cock back?”. Then there’s money involved too. The gravity of thanks for gifts received also depends on how heavy the gift is and how big the box is. But where will this confusing monstrosity end? Till we have special days for special things, this won’t change.

That’s all! Thank you for reading. Sorry for making you read.

Saying Thanks

This question might sound rhetorical but please tell me how many of you buy things online?

Have you read the order confirmation email when you receive it? Doesn’t it sound so automated and without any emotion right?

There was/is a company which used to sell CDs online. When someone used to order CDs, they used to send the confirmation email like this:

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day.

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh…

We miss you already. We’ll be right here at store.cdbaby.com patiently awaiting your return.

Noticed the difference? See in whatever way you connect with people, it might change their perception of you and vice versa. I had read this in Tools of Titans in the profile of Derek Sivers. I thought this email confirmation story might have been then in the past but apparently, it is still on.

How many times have today you said Thank You to someone with honesty? When was the last time, you were said thank you by someone else which was genuinely heartfelt? The thank you which genuinely moved you?

Thank you are just 2 small words which, if said genuinely, mean a whole lot to someone.

In my email signature, it always used to be ‘Warm regards’ or ‘Thanks’. But I saw one colleague of mine who had the longest 2 words ever: ‘Thank You’ for his signature. If you read it a couple of times, it would genuinely appear better than our usual stock replies.

I changed mine to ‘Thank You’ as well. When I am actually not thankful, I make it back to post-millennial ‘ty’.

Featured Photo on Visual Hunt