So friends, wondering why I began on this note?. Well, first and foremost, to clear all your doubts, I believe in the best of friendships, in the best of the unseen smiles of two hearts, in the best of the unknown trust that holds them strong, in the best of the pains that prove how happy their friendship is…
And there’s where I always fall short… Of that one word that has started to cover us with the darkness of silence. Time! And yes, time had changed everything, time has changed everything and probably time will forever change everything that friendship needs to hold on to. I don’t want anyone to agree or disagree with me and it’s strictly my perspective – something I have seen and felt for myself and something I have never found an answer for.
Now I’ll ski you through the friendships that embrace our life, in its different forms, in its different ways, in its different charms and in its different colors…
Friends as kids – probably the best and the most innocent part. Probably that part where everything is nothing and yet nothing does not exist! We laugh, cry, fight, point fingers at each other, hold each others’ hands, leave them and then again hang out for them in the worst of difficulties, smile at them, call them names and again forget everything the next day or just fight it out for the best one. Huh! Gone are those days of innocence, of untouched beauty, of un-worshipped greatness, of un-thoughtful smiles, unasked for glances…
Friends as teens in school – probably a great learning period. An exchange of the best of ideas and the worst of fights. Discussing crushes, cricket, films, music… Fighting over Shah Rukh – Aamir. Playing dumb-charades. Playing gully-cricket. Playing Antakshari. Enjoying the bus-ride while getting back from school. Planning to bunk and go for a movie. Buying posters. Saving every penny to have Gol gappas… All together. With some tears and smiles shared, some confidants growing, some enemies shattering, some love blooming… All and much much more. Reaching for the sky, wishing to touch the stars…
Friends in college – they to me, are the best of teachers. They hurt you, stab you, love you, look up at you, hold on to you in the craziest of storms, they grow on you, they adore you, they show you the door, they show you what life is like, what it was like and what it’s going to be like. You learn to live through your past, somehow cling on to your present and learn to live for the future. Life’s perhaps never faster a joyride or slowest a staggering painful death. You know you will never make it through those 3/4 years and yet there you are, bidding a final adieu to the closest people of your heart with moist eyes. You have to walk ahead, holding on to all those sweetest secrets of your heart, to all those beautiful moments of your dearest life…
Friends… You lose that way after this I guess. A few colleagues who love to spend time with you, who prefer enjoying with you, who prefer to have a quiet drink with you. Or a loving neighbor or an over-caring landlord or a few strangers here and there. Strangers with anonymous faces, strangers with strange faces, strangers who brush past you, strangers who smile at you, strangers who stare at you from the distance of light years…
I have been through all of it, down these more-than-a-decade of life and here I am today, trying to look back… To reach out a hand at that kid, that school-girl, that college-freak… Sometimes I happen to see one of those selves smiling at me. They seem to whisper a few words into my tearful eyes when they stop blinking.
The only special friend I might have in my life now is probably the person I have planned to spend my life with.
Ageless, aimless friendship! That’s perhaps the only thing I’ll ever love in blind faith throughout my life. It’s no longer in my life like it used to be – safe, smiling and assuring. It’s no longer happiness – it’s sometimes business now. It’s no longer a known face – it’s the concoction of a thousand unknown strangers. But still, I’d hold on to friendship forever. Because it has taught me to live, to love life as it comes, to change, to look at this world as a beautiful place.
And friendship just needs you to be the real you. That’s it, no pretensions. This world’s full of strange things and you certainly aren’t the strangest! Believe in yourself. Hold on to life and friendship will be with you. Change with life and friendship will be with you. Walk with life and friendship will be with you. In any form, any shape and any way.
Friendship comes in every size, every shape and every form. It’s the only thing that never changes. Through thick and thin, it stays with you. It cries with you, smiles with you, loves with you, grows up with you. It changes as and when you move ahead. In this fast world, it’s the only thing that stays by, no matter what. It’s the most loyal friend and the best possible teacher. It’s something inside you, something in your heart which lets the world know how beautiful you are.
Being a friend means not harming someone, being a friend means not hurting someone, being a friend means not laughing at someone, being a friend means not looking down on someone… Be a friend to this world, to everything in this world. Be the goodness this world needs so badly. Be the friend… The friend forever…
*"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."