RSVP!

English people earlier posted an abbreviation RSVP at the end of invitation letter.RSVP is in fact an abbreviated form of French words which in simple English mean reply if you please.RSVP is supposed to serve a very useful purpose if the guests cooperate with the host by informing him if he’d be able to attend the party. It helps the host make almost exact head count and make arrangement of food accordingly.It’d also minimize wastage of food due to guests’ failure to attend the function. In Indian culture , of course, guests are only cordially invited to the party and never are they asked to speak their mind if they’d be able to be present at the party. In fact, it’s feared the guest might take exception if such a question is put to him. However, some people on their own spell out their inability to attend the party on the appointed day for some reason or other. But majority of the invited guests remain silent in this regard or think it not proper to say their ‘inability’ to the face of the guests. However, sometimes the host can read the invitees’ mind from body language .In general, the guests need to speculate how many invitees would attend the function .The more precise is the speculation, the less will be the wastage of food or hassles to preserve the surplus food for distribution among the next door neighours.Some times food rots and it has to be thrown in the dustbin. It’s really a criminal offence to waste food in this manner in a country where the majority of people can’t make both ends meet. That apart, it means wastage of money for the host. Sometimes loss of money runs into thousands. I know, in a wedding feast 400 people were invited but only 200 odd guests attended the party. Now imagine the predicament of the host. Only way to wriggle out of such intriguing situation is to launch a social campaign to motivate invitees to let the host know if they’d be able to attend the party so that host could have a rough estimate of food he should keep ready for the guests to avoid wastage.