Gratitude implies thankfulness or an appreciation of benefits conferred, together with a desire, when practicable, to return those benefits. The grateful man feels joy at the kindness of his benefactor and cultivates a respect for him.
The child owes thanks to his parents for food, clothes, education and tender care; the scholar to his teachers for the training; personal friends to one another for mutual services. The frequent use of the phrase, ‘Thank you’ though often not more than a polite convention, nevertheless shows the universal belief in the necessity for cultivating a grateful attitude towards those who do something for us, however small that service be. The man who stops another in the streets of a town to ask his way would be considered a mean if he passed without saying thanks.
Ingratitude causes a man to be despised by his fellows and often brings its own punishments in so much as even the kind hearted grow tired of conferring favours upon those who show no appreciation of such favours.
SAMIA MALIK
Lahore
