Who would you call your best friend?
That is a question we often ask ourselves.
And it is a pertinent question.
Recently, most parts of the world celebrated Friendship Day with much fanfare (ranging from exchange of gifts, cards, sweet messages to special celebratory get-together's) and there was no dearth of friends screaming their allegiance, loyalty, trust et cētera.
But do we really value true friendship in these times of confusion and cacophony.
Aren't many of our so called 'deep' bondings actually quite phony?
All of us, at one point or the other, have longed for a best friend, a special someone, irrespective of gender or other broad, or need-based, specifications, with whom we'd share the strongest possible friendship; one who'll go all out to be there for us, in times of crises, big or small; one who will never judge us; one who'll never back-stab or even be critical behind us; one who can be trusted hundred per cent; one who will make us unwind and feel good about ourselves - no matter what.....
ya, it's a tall order.
The cynics will say, 'It's madness!', or at best, 'nothing but a lame romantic notion', or 'a utopian concept that is long past use'!
Maybe they have a point.
But still two friends, of whatever age or sex, can still find so much comfort when they call each other BEST FRIENDS.
I am privileged when a so called e-friend of mine introduced me the other day - when we met for a face to face chat - to a friend of his as "He is Anindo, my best friend!"
It meant a lot to me.
In fact, it meant the world.
As I had been on that day harbouring grudge against a particular back-stabber, and had been thinking that the acceptance of the new word 'unfriending', as opposed to the age old 'befriending' made much sense...... yes, on that very day....... my 'best friend' showed me how a small introduction - comprising just three words - can be so fulfilling.
I am keeping my fingers crossed. May I be able to be worth the tag. May we both live up to it.
8 comments:
"A best friend is someone who thinks you are the best egg even if you happen to be a cracked one!"
You are right, Anindo, in today's times, we do not value friendship in the truest sense..... hence we boast on reaching the maximum allowed limit for e-friends on social networking sites. Recently, I read in the papers that this trend has caught on so much with the young and impressionable that many a school-kid has 700 virtual friends on a certain networking site without having a single real fiend!
You are lucky to have such a BEST FRIEND, rather I should say that in your write-up you should have mentioned that you two are REALLY BEST friends (not just mentioning that he introduced you as one.... may be your friendship would be vouched for by him)..... and may be you should have introduced him to the readers of your blog by naming him. Spare a thought on it.
I agree with you, Mehul.
I am fortunate that just when I was about re-evaluate the concept of friendship when my erstwhile best friend had left me heartbroken and miserable, I had some one on whom I could pour my heart out.
I did compose an ode to him right then.... but it took to me some time to publish it here, on my blog. I was hesitant for many reasons. First, I did not know if he (my best friend) would be okay with my blabbering much of the trivial yet intimate stuff. I was even not sure if the post would be appropriate for my blog as such. Then on Friendship Day this year (August 1, 2010), I greenlighted it. Though I couldn't publish the post on that day as I was busy with other things. However, when I trimmed the original write-up, that I had saved as a mail, I suppressed, with much else, the name of my best buddy. Hahaha...... does the world really need to know?
It was Raining
The sky was Deep,
Was finding an Umbrella to walk under.
Standing there for you
To catch little warmth in the wintry breeze.
You can rest your head on my shoulder.
Even I would bring you a small little bowl of water in the scorching desert,
I wont afford your beauty dying in the grime, falling apart,
within,
Get over with this adverse hours.
I have been arching a rainbow for you
Smell the fragrance
your BEST FRIEND is holding the Sunbeam through the shower.
Friendship needs no promises, no demands, and no expectations...
it just needs
two people...
right, Dibyendu?
To be best friends,
one has to be a crackpot like me
&
the other one has to be
a double crackpot like you!
hahahaha...... just kidding!
I loved your poem.
It's timeless.
It's heartfelt.
If I had one gift that I could give you, it would be the ability to see yourself from my eyes, because only then would you know how extremely special you are for this "double crackpot". :-)
My words are not sufficient to convey the intensity of this friendship even.
Friends come and go, but only a few leave a deep imprint in our heart, by virtue of the truth and the innocence that the very relation entails..... and they are the ones whom we call our BEST FRIENDS!
Everyone has a best friend during each stage of life; only the lucky ones have the same best friend in all stages of life.
I must add that there is always a certain chemistry between best friends. And, before anyone jumps the gun, I must clarify that by chemistry I do not mean sexual chemistry, or the chemistry between lovers..... it is something else altogether. Something profound. Something sublime. And it is a bit of a rarity in these maddening times of competitiveness and oneupmanship.
Best friends almost certainly have two e's in common - empathy & equality. It might seem like a tough ideal, but it has more to do with the perception than actualisation. To become best friends, considerable time (read: years) needs to be invested. Only then do the trust issues, reciprocity and revelation quotient get tested & strengthened.
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