FRIENDSHIP

‘It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them’ 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson’s quote does ring a bell. How often have we restrained ourselves from being our true outspoken self in front of people whom we meet only in an official environment for fear of appearing silly and juvenile? Isn’t that natural in a world where everyone is sitting to observe and judge you and label you with their judgments? Hasn’t our childish streak within been constantly strangled and suppressed in favour of appearing important to the outside world? The answers may vary of course. But who can deny that we are at our best and truest in the company of old friends.

The very friends we made over a game of ball, or in the noisy back-benches of our classrooms, over a cup of coffee, or over a personal tragedy we felt secure in sharing with a person who had little to offer in terms of solution but who had the ability to understand and eventually wipe our tears. To be fair to them, they are also the ones who would stand by you in public but reprimand you in private if they know you were at fault. The best part is we would never mind our best friends admonishing us as they are our living mirrors who would never lie.  In Oprah Winfrey’s words, ‘Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down’.

Then there are those friends who do not have the comfort of staying few blocks away from each other but are separated by seven seas due to family, educational or professional compulsions. The same friend who you would meet every day in school, college or classes is now pursuing a different career in a different city surrounded by different friends. It might have broken your heart to see them happy and enjoying their new life of which you are no longer a part. But very soon do you realise that your special bond of friendship spanned across these geographical limitations and you continue to be an inseparable part of each other’s lives.

Last but certainly not the least, there are those bonds which have quivered to stand the test of time and allowed little fissures to develop in volcanoes. Friendship is not a monochromatic bond that can be forged only between two people having similar personality traits, habits, social qualities or intellect but a mixture of different hues of colours, shades of gray, warts and all. The very beauty of friendship lies in its variety and just as like-mindedness is a feature of some friendships, so is a drastic difference of opinions.  It is in nature’s law that ‘Opposites attract’ and there can only be man-made excuses that justify a broken friendship. For those who feel any of this is true surely have one good opportunity to bury the hatchet and reignite and relive the best times of the good ol’ days. All it takes is someone with the courage to break the ice first; the melting happens at a rate at which even real ice will be ashamed of.

An intelligent lady (this can be debated later) once said,

Do not save your loving speeches
For your friends till they are dead;
Do not write them on their tombstones,
Speak them rather now instead.

Happy Friendship Day/Week/Month/Year/Lifetime to all…