Friends are and shall be an integral part of our life, no matter how much ‘Scrooge’ like nature we bear, friends shall come along our way in all the seasons of our life; whether it shall be the spring of childhood or the summer of youth, the autumn of adulthood or the winter of the weary elderly days – there shall be a few souls that shall always tend to the task of carving out a smile on our solemn face, hold our hand and help us cross every other bridge of hardship that life has in store for us, take care of us when the flu has got us down and crack a laugh over nothing but a few cups of java. Some hope for good friends, some crave for them, some desire them, some dream for them, but the truth is that good friends come across our way like every other day, the difference between them and others is that – they stay. The essence of friendship in our life is perhaps the best Friendship Day Special gift that we can get ourselves but not before treating those with delights who have provided meaning to the word friendship in our life.
Friendship initiates in the playground – the vessel that harbors the populous wearing knickers and frocks and running a mock, going all gaga over a game of cricket or a ride on the merry go round – how desperately have we all tried to befriend that populous during our childhood – to be a part of their group and share their ‘legacy’ – that’s right ‘legacy’, to be recognized as one of them and play with them – anytime, anyplace, anywhere. But the road to that destination had never ever been a smooth ride if one had been very lucky – as if mother luck had just chosen one particular individual to smile upon that day and it was you – then you got in and mingled just like the colors of the evening light blending into one another otherwise it was a long road – a road full of obstacles and you had to try hard to win the playground committee over. Tasks like this were usually accomplished by standing by the entrance of the playground and flaunting your new bat or infiltrating the group by befriending one of its members who is keen enough to exchange a few Pokemon cards or Barbie dolls, and their like. Oh boy, with all done, how well did one blossom in the playground like a maddened soul with his/her accomplices trying their best to live their age and get the best of the time that we can never ever relive.
Kindergarten and Primary school brought along their own definition of friends. While we were usually crying our hearts out during our Kindergarten days because all we wanted then was to go back home to our mother and our sole friend was perhaps our teacher who tended to us all day long, trying to calm us down, Primary school opened its gate to a welcoming difference. There began a bonding that traces its roots to the essence of the purest form of friendship. We were either innocent, we were either vile, sometimes we donned the hat of a hooligan and often enough we were shy but we had succeeded in gathering a set of perfect pals who lunched with us, were our brethren in mischiefs, disturbed us during the class, borrowed erasers and pencils never to return them back and didn’t try hard enough to repress their laugh when they witnessed us standing on our chairs, our arms up and our face sullen. But the best part was that we possessed the very same attitude when the tables were reversed and some things are too good a treat to resist. Those days surely were.
Junior school was the time when somehow everybody around started falling in love and to be truthful such endeavors were nothing more than juvenile crushes but still such incidents did breathe the essence of trust in everyone’s friendship. Everyone started to confide their feelings and secrets to their best buddies and though the confidante did put up a serious face during the confider’s tale, yet every word marked a fairy tale notion that didn’t always materialize but gave us something to talk about apart from studies, ‘why Miss So and So is so strict’, ‘who will win the match tomorrow’ and everything else.
If you are lucky and seldom people are lucky in this case, you will transcendence to being a Senior in the same school with the same set of friends. With the arrival of seniority, everything starts to catch up with a sense of seriousness and the after effects of it are blatantly put on display in our verbal affection for our friends. Friends are no more considered as ‘just friends’, they are now considered as ‘Brothers’ and ‘Sisters’. Everything during this era has an air of seriousness about it for we are now the youth and the youth is the future. There is a tremendous load of studies and borrowing and lending of notes is considered one of the essential clause in the world of friends. To help a friend during an ongoing examination is considered nothing less than honorable. Puppy crushes are history and serious love affairs are the new vogue and one has to often prove himself as a worthy friend during heartbreaks by supporting the solemn victim. Hanging out with friends, talking to them and listening to them often leads to us self-discovering ourselves in manners that we have not expected before. At such an age, friends are a motivating experience and if one is a part of a healthy company, he/she moves forth in life with memories that are cherished throughout a lifetime.
College life delivers to us an exclusive set of friends – we are quite familiar with the fact that our college friends shall not be there for long with us – four or five years and then they shall be gone – like a short lived beautiful dream. And thus, we have to make the most out of the time we have by living life with a sense of exhilaration. In no time do college friends become like a family away from home and if you are residing in a hostel then the time spent there becomes a lot more merrier. College friends are an enlightening experience. They are the one with whom you can freely – without any inhibitions – discuss your future, weigh the pros and cons, talk about your life while sitting beneath the star-studded roof of the sky sipping lukewarm tea and yet believing nothing could ever be perfect than this. They make you feel more confident and less vulnerable, they educate you on things that you know not and correct you when you go wrong. Assignments are exchanged and combined studies are hosted – delicacies are prepared in the room itself and no matter how meager amount one has been served, everyone takes pride in relishing it. Together we make mistakes and together we learn, together we roam across undiscovered territories, together we dine, together we capture moments in photographs and together we look forth to a future where beautiful memories adorn our life.
Thanks to social media portals such as Facebook that in today’s age, adults, the life of whom is bustling with ever rising business, don’t have to worry about being in touch with their friends. When we are working all day long trying to provide for ourselves, it is no surprise that at the end of the day we are tired to the core. If one has succumbed to the invitation of a family life, then there are a tad more obligations to fulfill. After all this hullabaloo, if one does find time to hang out with his/her office pals to exchange a few words over drinks or catch a movie, one will definitely find it hard to breathe the same vigor in his/her social life, that existed when they were young. As of the friends of days gone by, it is generally hard to stay in touch with them as they, themselves are busy with their life with many having relocated themselves for better prospects. However, exchanging greetings on social media platforms with the segments of the best part of one’s life shall definitely lead to the ignition of old memories of the days gone by and though not beside you, your friends shall still manage to make you smile.
The wizened proclaim that ‘friends are not everything’, but the truth is that friends are a memorable portrayal of everything that has gone by in our life and of everything that’s yet to occur. Good friends are a moral, bad friends are an education. Friends are a need, not because it’s with them that we weave memories of a lifetime, but because they often hear words unsaid and witness feelings that we’ve not displayed. They are like crutches to a lonely soul – for a lone soul is nothing but handicap. Friends are a present that we gift ourselves and if we have a good choice, we are perhaps endowed with the best present of our life.
