Respect

“Sir, we would like you to give us certificates that we are working as residents in this department” four of the resident doctors in the department came to me with this request. “But such certificates are issued by the Dean” I said. “Sir, we are planning to go to the national conference, where they want a certificate from the head of department” they said. I knew about it. The federation of gynecologists held conferences, charging fancy delegate fees. They offered a discount to resident doctors, provided they got a certificate from their heads of departments. “Sir, we have got the certificates printed” they showed me the printouts. “You just have to sign on them.” I took one of the four printouts, and read through. There was standard stuff there, telling whoever it may concern that so and so was a resident doctor working in my department, and that the certificate was issued for the purpose of the said conference. But there was one objectionable point. ‘“Respected Sir/Madam’ it said at the beginning, just after the line ‘To Whomsoever It May Concern’. I always respect people, but I want to know whom I am offering the respect. “If the concerned party is unknown, as you make clear in the beginning, I cannot say I respect that person. I would dislike calling someone respected if that person is not respectable.” Besides that, there is ‘Sir/Madam’ which is signifying respect. So why do you want to put the word ‘respected’, when you want me to sign the document? They did not have an answer to that question. “If the concerned person is not respectable, he/she will not accept a letter addressed to a ‘respected’ person. You stand to lose an opportunity if they do not accept this letter as one not addressed to them” I said. They looked at my face trying to make out if I was serious. “We could print all these certificates again, after removing the word ‘respected’. But should we be wasting paper which is not a ‘green’ thing to do. Let us put whitener on that word.” One resident doctor went to an adjacent office and procured a bottle of whitener, a substance used by clerks to remove unwanted words from a printout. They covered that word with white paint in all four certificates. I signed the certificates and said, “putting whitener on that word has a greater impact than not having printed that word at all.” They got that one and grinned.