Thank You….

“The saying “thank you” is an expression of gratitude. For example, when receiving a present or favour from someone, it is polite (and often expected) to say “Thank You” as a communication of gratitude.”- Wikipedia (ofcourse!)

Two words… so simple… yet probably the two most difficult words that would leave the lips of any person.

I like observing people… not quite in the Big Brother form of things, but generally watching how people do simple, daily and routine things. I think this gives a good enough perception of how the people around behave, and what can be expected from them. Ofcourse, watching the same 5 people at home will give you a consistent result, so I aim to use random people, people on the train or walking on the street as a sample.

Right, so something must have touched a nerve for me to come out loud about this… well, there is something actually…

I do a fair bit of driving at the weekend, and London being London – there are lot of cars on the road. It is unbelievable how uncourteous a large majority of the people on the road are! Now, I am not looking for any appreciation in particular, but it seems that it is good manners to thank someone when they give you way to pass, or wait for you to pass through the narrow road when it could have easily been the other way round.

But it’s not only on the roads that this happens. Very rarely is it that you get an acknowledgement when you hold the door open for someone at the mall, or let someone jump the queue in front of you to enter the train station or at the deli during lunchtime.

So why such a change in behaviour within society? Well, for a start, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that people are more unhappy now than ever.  Unhappiness generally leads to lack of appreciation of pretty much anything. General bad manners is something else which comes to mind. But I think more than anything else – people don’t think about their actions anymore. I think selfishness would cover that, but it’s far more than that. Whatever it is, lack of a “Thank You” in certain circumstances have had dire consequences.

I guess what I really want to say is… people are ready to say “Sorry” with such ease, yet 2 words – “Thank You”,  which are even easier to say, are probably the two most difficult words to come by.

So, to all the readers, who have reached so far down my post, or even make an efort to read a post – all I want to say is a BIG Thank you!

Tagged as: London, Thank you