Thursday, January 14, 2010

Appreciation

Remember the moment from Munnabhai MBBS when Munna (Sanjay Dutt) gives a jaadu ki jhappi to the janitor of the hospital to thank him for all the sincere work he did everyday?

These days I'm reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The second chapter talks about appreciating people for their good work and efforts. A few days ago, while reading that part of the chapter, I heard the cleaners cleaning the floor of my corridor. I opened the door and looked out. A cleaner went by and asked, "Kaisa hai? (how is it?)" indicating the floor.
I responded, "Accha hai, accha hai. (Its good, its good)"
I realized that instead of him asking for appreciation, I should have given him and others the appreciation they deserve.

We meet people in the following profession on a regular basis: Barber, tailor, cobbler, sweeper, garbageman, milkman etc. We pay them, they give us service and that is where it all ends. Imagine walking up and down a market place and not being able to locate a barber, a tailor, or a cobbler when you need them the most!
What I believe is that because people in such professions don't earn much, we tend to overlook their contribution to our society, to us. We forget how important they are. Let me be honest here, same treatment is given to a compounder against a doctor, a salesman against an MBA graduate, a mechanic against an engineer, a teacher against a professor. Every person is important, so is their work.

Before joining college, I had the pleasure of service from an Army jawaan (soldier) assigned to my father to run errands and do odd jobs. I have always been thankful for their help (we have a better name for them, helper), but never appreciated them which means myself being grateful has no significance if I can't convey it!

We must, therefore, appreciate our colleagues for the hard work and time, appreciate our parents for all they've done for us, appreciate a performer who, even for a moment, entertained us, appreciate ourselves for doing something new, something different and/or something useful, and finally appreciate God/Nature for the goodness that lies within us.

P.S. 1 - Presence of people doing odd jobs, "small" work etc. in our lives are like vitamins and minerals for the human body.

P.S. 2 - Try cleaning, stitching, hair-cutting, running errands and such tasks. Its fun!

P.S. 3 - Like Teacher's day, father's day, mother's day, children's day, valentine's day... one should have a day to appreciate the contribution of those whose presence may not be felt but absence certainly hurts!

8 comments:

Mux said...

Nice :)
I think it would hv been better if u would hv written the experience u had after thanking someone for doing something for u :)

@nks said...

I donno bout the appreciation day. But there is one day in "Jains" it's called "uttam kshma" i guess ... when u apoligise to every person you know for all the known and unknown displeasing deeds you've done to them.

Unknown said...

First of all, the book you mentioned and all such so called 'self-help' books are crap, that's my take on them. If you think deep, you already know most of the things that you tell you... why I hate them is because they take a preaching role (even though unintentionally) ...

Coming to the topic under discussion, I think you should behave with people like you want them to behave with you. I sometimes even go to the extend of thanking people who cause me harm... like a fellow who almost dropped his cup of tea on me and I could only say " bless you " and he smiled and apologized. I could have given him a hard stare and still get an apology, but then :-)

Thanking someone you owe something isn't a big deal.. as you say (not directly though) ...

Aniket said...

I think Labour Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day could be used for the "appreciation" you have called for.

Atul Dwivedi said...

shit post .. but nice idea ... u should appreciate people around you ..but not much, or people will think other way around ...appreciate everyone but only for good works :P

Abhishek said...

@Manish: Thanks! But then I wouldn't have been able to show the other side! :D
@@anks: Ah, a sibling of 'Thanksgiving day' !! :D :P
@Paradox Don't you think everything/one in this world preaches something? Self-help books work because they help reinforce one's faith on one's beliefs and teach us to believe in other important things that one previously didn't believe or refused to believe in. It is like a guide, a path to follow and unlike religious books, a recently written/revised self-help book based on intensive and good research, would help because its knowledge would be based on current situations.
"Coming to the topic under discussion, I think you should behave with people like you want them to behave with you." I completely agree to this point and to be honest, this very idea resolves all the behavioral issues, if only one followed it! :D
@Aniket: Yes, something like that but labourer doesn't include everyone, I think.
@Atul: I agree. :)

@nks said...

u've been tagged .... !!

@nks said...

u've been tagged .... !!