Short story : The few words of appreciation

Words have great power and I for one have always believed that words are mightier than a sword, among in those words there is a word called appreciation which can bring a smile on anyone’s face. In this cruel world, I often see people bitter and unhappy with their lives and I often wondered why it is so. There are few people I know who hate their jobs, are unhappy with their relationships, or just plain unhappy with the current circumstances. I don’t claim to have answers to all the problems but I do have this magic word appreciation which may help you in many of your endeavours.

Have you even noticed a few encouraging words at the office just make you work even harder to achieve even more or told your girlfriend she looks amazing in that particular look, she would thrive even harder to maintain that look for you. These are the few simple examples but what I want to talk about today is appreciating the person you are with. In today’s life the appreciation we get is when we post picture on the Facebook wall and getting those likes and comments. I have seen many profile pictures where I could read the whole synonyms of the word beautiful, (yes if you have 2000 friends you easily get these kinds of comments). Let me tell you a story of what kind of appreciation I am talking about.

In these big cities, we see everyone is in a hurry, people are always enjoying and almost an illusion of bliss, but what I see is someone who don’t wants to be alone this night, someone who has been hurt to many times and just have a mirage of being happy, in the corner I see someone who is not wondering if his wife is having an affair and in that middle there is a young girl who is trying to move as fast as the big city. Let’s call this girl Gitanjali.

Gitanjali was a cheerful girl, I have never seen her without her smile and yet when I saw her after these years, I wasn’t able to recognize her. She has lost weight, her hair had lost that texture and I could see she was crying. She didn’t recognize me when we first met; maybe it had been 4 years since we last talked. I greeted her and introduced myself; even though it was a little awkward but it she was once a close friend. I asked her if she was free so we can get some coffee, she wasn’t interested but I insisted, maybe she remembered the fun times we use to have back in college.

We sat down in a coffee shop when I started the formal talks, I could see there wasn’t any banter nor she looked interested. I was feeling insulted but I was relentless and then I was finally able to make her laugh. I told her she still had that pretty smile of before and how I use to love making her smile but then there was a reaction I wasn’t prepared for. She started sobbing and I didn’t know why. I tried to console her but I was at loss of words, I didn’t know what was that I said to make her upset. She stood up and excuses herself to the washroom. I sat there looking around and all the people staring at me, I imagined they must think I am that cliché guy who breaks up in public so the other girl doesn’t create a scene. She came back and asked for my forgiveness. I asked her what was wrong. I thought of all the reasons that she could be sad but she was still silent, looking down at her coffee. Then she looked up and tried to speak, I don’t know what was stopping her but never the less I gave her few more words of encouragement so she may say whatever her problems are without fear.

She began to tell me her story as I sipped on my coffee and try to not judge her husband. She had married her love from college without the permission of her parents and recently moved to this new city. She didn’t know anyone here and her husband was never around the house and the times he was there; they would always fight and he would always criticize her about everything. She was again in tears as she thought back at what all was happening in her life. She was contemplating divorcing him and she was returning from a lawyer’s office when she bumped into me. I asked her husband’s name and where he worked, I didn’t know what was going on but I wasn’t going to make any judgements listening to one side of the story.

Later that day, maybe high on emotions I went up to her husband office. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say but I felt I had to do something for my friend. I was told to wait at the lobby, while I sat there I imagined him having an affair with someone in the office. There were lot of beautiful women there. As I entered his office I enquired if he was having an affair with any of them. He was dumbfounded and asked who I am. I introduced myself as Gitanjali’s friend and then told him about the events of the afternoon. He was shocked and asked if he could meet me after office timing. He gave his number and asked me to meet him near his office.

As I was heading out of the office, he called me up, if I remember correctly his words were, my wife is more important than this job. I waited for him outside. We together walked outside and he kept asking for more details about what his wife had told me. I cut him off in mid-sentence and asked first tell me do you still love her. His words assured me of his love but his problem was he wasn’t able to give her time and neither was able to find the right words. He was always tired from work and adjusting to the new city was even hard for him. He also told me that they weren’t talking for three months now, which made him even more agitated. Home was not a place where he felt happy to go back to. I could understand what he meant and I had only one advice for him.

“Man you have to admire the lady in your life, she is the best thing happen to you, she has left her whole world just to be with you and all she wants are few words of appreciation from you”

He was saddened to think he was never thankful to her for so-many things. He even started to count them to me. I told him not to tell me but explain how much he value her being in his life, he has to appreciate her beauty and her selfless love for him and that is all a women needs. Attention and appreciation form the person she loves.

I still kept in touch with them; it was hard for both of them to express their appreciation for each other at first but after a year when I went to their home, I saw a there was a change. He admired her cooking and even said she was the best cook in the world and she was blushing all the way.

This was a short story of mine just to make you understand the value of words of appreciation so next time you ever find someone looking good or even have done something good enough, don’t be so niggardly with your words of appreciation, tell that person he has done great. Remember few little words just can make someone happy and happiness is what we strive for.