The Art of Being Painfully Grateful

People who know me well, know me as one an impeccable example of those who lack the talent to talk up to the situation. But it's always been the case, that I land up in situations that need to be talked up to. For example, how about this lovely conversation with a friend over phone after long long time, (initiated by me)

"Hi"
"OHH HHHAAAAAAII !!"
"I called you up for asking if you have an mp3 of this song ...."
[I can imagine you 'ptch'ing and shaking your head sideways in disapproval. Where's all the "How are you, old egg?" or "hows life dude ? what's up?" and all such chummy intros gone ?]
"oh."
"So, you have it ?"
"eh ? no. i don't know. I need to check up. listen ..i'll call you later."
["there is a thing called tact, you know .. "]
"okay."

On retrospect, I felt I'll do some justice to the 'ptch'ers by calling up another friend and I talked on and on for 20 minutes till I could sense that the conversation goes like this ..

"hmmm"
"umm"
"that's what"
"yeah sure"
"hmmm"


And I didn't feel any better later. It must be clear, with this one singular example, that for me, being polite is the same as being frank. I have been recently seeing a lot of influence of the office environment over my friends. May be I'm a bit too rigid about my views. But there it is. There is a lot of "Thanx man"
stuff that goes around in office and I find myself getting dragged into it reluctantly.

"Hey, did you forward that mail ?"
"yes i did."
"Thanx man."

Surprisingly,

"Hey, did you forward that mail ?"
"No, i didn't. Will do it now" ... and then .. pat comes ..
"Thanx man."

This must be easy ... like ..
"Hey dude"
"Thanx man."
"How are you?"
"Fine. Thanx man."

So, I try out my luck over something similar and I get all glossy, face full of smiles from the opponent for me saying thanx. So, I declare to him,
"hey, thanx a lot for filing the bugs" [His job. He gets paid for that]
" :-) . Actually there are two more "
"Oh great. thanx man."

I felt relieved that I too can do this easily. So,
thanx, thanx, thanx, for reading this post. My words fail me when I try to express my unparelleled gratitude that my heart profuses for you for your highly condescending act of spending your invaluble time here. Thanx a lot, Thanx man, Thanx lady, Thanx, thanx thanx.