Nature has gifted an amazing quality to living beings – the quality of friendship. “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” It also means that a friend is one who is always available, accessible, reliable and just a call away. The world becomes a beautiful planet if we can find people with us to support us and who we can rely upon. How painful it is that in a population of 6 billion we often don’t find a single person, whom we can trust. We spent our life without creating a single friendship worth talking about. All our education, training, prestige and fame are useless if we cannot boast of a single friend. It is the friends, who enable us to have right ideas, thoughtful discussions, critical reasoning, inspired readings, proactive strategies and an unfailing insurance of a strong bondage.

Turn adversity into opportunity

Bring laughters back

Add cheers to a sullen face

Bring memories alive

Scold for blunders

Correct for mistakes

Be More than the Shadow

Take charge of your friend

Cultivate never ending bonds

Who will accompany you and support you all through your troubles and problems? Who will enable you to experience a feeling of being at home in this lonely planet? Who will let you experience the joy of someone who cares for you? With whom can you share your stupidity and who will still not change his attitude towards you? Your true friend will be there with you more than your shadow. Whenever you will need, you will find the friend just to back you up. A friend is one, who can tell you on your face that you are wrong and yet you would not mind. A friend is one, who can force you to withdraw your wrong decisions and you can’t oppose also. A friend is one who can bring cheers to you by taking you through the lanes of old memories. A friend only has the liberty to touch you, stir your emotional chords and take a decision on your behalf.

Anecdotes from Indian History

Indian history is replete with many anecdotes on friendship. Krishna-Sudama is one such story. This story shows amazing bondage between Krishna and Sudama and this is a great lesson for all of us. Here friendship is beyond the narrow definitions like caste, class and narrow personal interest. Here we see an elevated ideal of the ideals of friendship. If there are friends like Krishna – Sudama, there are also friends like Karn-Duryodhan, where the friend gives complete unconditional support even in evil deeds. But, this is not the mark of a true friend. A true friend has to be someone, who is there to guide, help and also correct if there are mistakes. A true friend has to be one, who clarifies the right path from the wrong.

Sacrifice: the true test of friendship

Friendship is based on the concept of sacrifice. A friend is one who is always prepared to sacrifice. This sacrifice is not against a call, nor against a return. This sacrifice is from an inner urge, which propels a friend to do something for another friend. This sacrifice is not in an anticipation of any return. I would like to quote here friendship of Mr. Jatan Dugar and Mr. Loon Karan Chhajed of Bikaner. Both are friends from childhood and I have not seen a stronger friendship bondage. They are engaged in different businesses, but both meet with each other and share all important thoughts and ideas and support each other through all difficulties. They try to help each other and give unparallelled support to each other. When one person is in trouble, the other person is there to back up.  Sometime back I came to know that Mr. Chhajed had fallen ill and had to be taken to Jaipur for medical treatment. He was hospitalized for some time. As always, Mr. Jatan Dugar left all his businesses and other things and rushed with him, and remained attached all the time and brought him back after his recovery. When I went to see Mr. Chhajed, I knew that Mr. Jatan Dugar would be available there in the hospital. So, I called him and reached the hospital and as expected I found Mr. Dugar attending Mr. Chhajed. The younger generation should learn lessons from their friendship.
Challenges for the future

In today’s materialistic world, the meaning of friendship is also diluting and people often give more weightage to their material requirements than to the spiritual values of eternal friendship. The age old values of friendship is at a crossroad. It is only the time that will tell us whether the values of friendship will survive down to the next era or not.