Friday, August 25, 2006

Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. or

What do you do when you have to write a mail and you do not know if the person is a man or a woman? Years ago someone innovative solved the problem by addressing my friend as "Dear Gentle Person". Hmmm... very innovative.

The related problem about the marital status of a lady (female in modern parlance) was solved long ago with Ms. Male chauvinism got a, deserved, beating there.

Companies declare their unbiased employment policy with "An equal opportunity employer M/F/H" - for Male/ Female/Handicapped (Hermaphrodite - a wag once said) - even in their product advertisements.

Now put all this together and how do you address a person whose sex is not known to you?

Dear Hs. Xyzwcu? Hs. standing for Homo Sapien Sapien? Or should it be Hss. ? Sounds more like a specimen of the species Naja Naja.

Or, should it be Hb. Xyzwcu? Hb. Standing for the less academic “human being”?

Not bad!

Dear Hb. Anil Jagalur....

Yes please?

4 comments:

  1. Drop the salutation altogether. Begin with "Dear Anil Jagalur".

    My company for one, does not include Mr/Ms/Dr in any of its correspondence.

    And as soon as the body of the letter starts, the person becomes an 'employee' and the cold he/she tone starts.

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  2. Ya Viky, BUT! If I knew the first name of the person I was writing to it was easy. I did not! Only initials and a surname and hence all these thoughts.

    Most of us have the format of firstname.surname@....com as the e-mail id and it is an exception that caused this thought process.

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  3. Anonymous5:21 pm

    Good thought process!
    You can as well say
    Dear Hb!
    I am .... (self introduction)
    you don't have to know the firstname, surname...etc

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  4. TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN - Sounds rude to me, doesn't it? Hahahahaha

    {Naja Naja (in German) is No No(in English. And Jajaja (in German) is Yes Yes(in English) }

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