When I was a kid studying in standard 2, I was asked by my teacher to write an essay...The first essay of my life. I was supposed to write a few words on ‘My Best Friend’. Clueless about what to write, I toiled hard all night... bothered my parents a lot...I scribbled...I erased...I rewrote...finally came up with a piece that fetched me a ‘VERY GOOD’ in class on the next day. Elated with this achievement, the 6 year old heart assumed that finally it had understood what n how should a best friend be. However in the succeeding years life rejected this kiddish assumption of mine.
It was only when I started growing up that I actually started knowing and understanding the most selfless spirit ever known to the mankind i.e...’FRIENDSHIP’. As a growing kid I enjoyed this spirit in school when we were punished together, when we shared lunches, when we messed up in exams and even when we had crushes on the same teacher. Then I became a teenager. With the amount of complication and confusion rising to the next level, I saw yet another variation of this spirit. As life tossed us to the most uncertain yet colourful part of life I and my friends developed a different bonding altogether. We bunked tuition classes, spoke endlessly on the phone about ‘nothing’, hadled the exam pressures together, and also fell in love for the first time together. In short we saw life growing bigger and bigger. But then our lives parted ways and things changed.
But again after so many years, yesterday, this 20 year old kid-woman was asked to define friendship and she found herself as clueless as she was when she was six. When I started introspecting (yet again after 14 years...) as to what this spirit means to me today, I was baffled by my ignorance. I realized that there is hardly any part of me which is innocent enough to immerse itself in this pure human emotion. It occurred to me that I have grown up and the process of becoming a part of the complicated adult world has already begun. So every time I meet a new person I create a superficial relationship and make sure that the other person never sees the other side of me. Every time I try to be diplomatic, politically correct and sometimes euphemistic.
When I was almost convinced that l had killed the spirit of friendship in me, it just occurred to me that may be I haven’t. May be I am getting into yet another shade of the same spirit. May be life is redefining friendship again. And this time it’s beautiful. Two different people of entirely different age groups and different worlds meet and hit upon a fantastic equation within the blink of an eye. Is this not friendship again? It is....
Seeing life through the experiences of man who has known and seen life better, talking endlessly without thinking and being sure the other person would understand, seeing the barriers falling down with each conversation and finally being able to get back to each other at the end of every busy day... are few elements of this brand new shade of friendship. This time there is no reasoning and no manipulation. Things are just happening and I m letting them happen.
On a closing note, I pray for the perpetuity of this beautiful relationship and at the same time I also thank God for gifting me this wonderful friend.
S.P
Gandhinagar
02.02.2011
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