Scepticism and Us!!!

An interesting incident happened to me today. After sleeping late last night, I woke up pretty late today. I was tired and was in no mood to walk half a kilometre and go eat at the mess, despite the mouth watering lunch menu. But then I did not want to spend money and order from outside as well. So I called up the mess and asked them to send a sick-diet to my room. Previously, whenever I had asked the mess people to deliver food to my room, they had sent khichdi and curd which was just enough to fill a pigeon's stomach. But today, within 10 minutes of ordering, a guy from the mess came and delivered the food. When I saw the big plastic bag in his hand, I got confused. I had expected a small petite polythene in his hands. Anyways, I took the packet and sat down to eat. When I opened the polythene, I was pleasantly surprised. Never before had I seen food packed so meticulously, neatly and cleanly. This time, there was no khichdi etc. Instead, there were pooris, chhole, curd, kadhi, salad, jalebis, til ke laddoo and rice; all of them in ample quantity and each of them packed seperately in a different polythene bag. I was so happy and ecstatic that I decided to call up the mess and thank the guy straight away. So I dialled the number and after a couple of rings, the same person who had taken the order picked up the phone. The conversation with the mess guy (MG) went something like this :

Me: Dekhiye, I had ordered from 12-14 sometime back.
MG: Haanji
Me: I just called up to thank you. The food was very well packed n all.
MG: (completely stumped and not believing what he was hearing) Sorry sir?????
Me: Arre I just called up to say thank you because the lunch that you sent was really good.
MG: (with a meek smile accompanied with the feeling of trepidation as to WHY is this guy being so sarcastic) Sorry sir!!!!!!
Me: Nahin nahin bhaiyya, I seriously called up to thank you.
MG: (disbelievingly) Sirji, kya galti ho gayi?
Me: Arre nahin baba. Maine sach mein aapko thanks bolne ke liye phone kiya tha.
MG: (confused and STILL trying to figure out what does this guy have against me and why cant he tell me straight away what went wrong) Bata dijiye sir..main phirse bhej deta hoon.
Me: (laughing now) arre but bhaiyya, maine BAS aapko thanks karne ke liye phone kiya tha!!!
MG: (somewhere between laughing, smiling and being shy) achcha theek hai jee...
Me: (laughing hilariously) chaliye bbye
MG: (also laughing) bye!

A short phone conversation, but accompanied with an alarming amount of learning. Why was he so sceptical when I said thanks to him? Has he got used to complaints and criticism SO much that he can no longer believe someone really calling him up and saying thanks to him?
This was just a one-off case. There must be so many more people in our lives whose activities we take for granted..people, in whose criticism, we leave no stone unturned..people we keep complaining about, but never ever bother to thank when they do something good. Be it the house maid or the milkman, the sweeper or the dhobi, the mechanic or the shopkeeper. Whose fault is it? Coming to think of it, I don't think I cam blame them. They are not used to being praised. So obviously, when you go and thank them, they feel awkward. The fault is ours. Why are we so miserly when it comes to saying a mere 'Thank You?'. Do we think it will lower our status if we go and thank these people who are a part of our everyday lives? Or do we think that it is their responsibility to serve us well and all that praise would do is put them on the seventh heaven, to where they do not belong? If we think like that, shame on us.
Anyways, after this incident, I felt really really nice. I would do this more often, as often as I can, thanking people..and something tells me that YOU would too!
:)