Truly Yours !!!

A couple of days back, I travelled with this very sweet friend of mine and he always makes me think about one thing or the other. Such is his presence. Even if he speaks a sentence he will speak it with such passion that you start to think about the underlying issue, no matter what.

So what did we speak about???

Recently I had a very small tiff with a self claimed 'good friend' of mine. She loves to call herself an egoistic person. I say do it. But what happens when everyone around you starts to do the same? Coming back to where I started. This tiff with her got me thinking about FRIENDS!! What is it with this word that the world goes on and on about it? What are the boundaries for a friend? Is it OK to be jealous of your own friend? Is it considered 'cool' to brag about your own self all the time giving you pages full of advice? How much of your life do you discuss with your so called friend for life? How much of hurt is tolerable? Is it fine for them to judge you at all times? To be precise, where do you draw the line, if any?

I do not claim to have multitude of friends but I am so proud of the ones who I have. When people are asked, "What gives meaning to your life?" friendship figures at the top of the list. Yet the dynamics of friendship have remained mysterious and unquantifiable. Like romantic love, friendships are thought to "just happen."

I do not know how right I am in saying that the primary factor that binds all the relationships is trust and respect, which is again the toughest to maintain. I asked a couple of my friends to describe what they think about friendship and the answers were not really surprising. For some it meant sharing, caring, everlasting and blessing; for some it meant a part of them, extended family and the likes. Similar emotions flow through a lot of people when they talk about their friends.

For a person like me who is often a failure at keeping up with most friends, reciprocity is the key. I think we all are alike. We all put in efforts where we have the support of the second person and this seems to work in all relationships. If closeness forms the basis of friendship, it stands to reason that your best friend would be someone with whom you enjoy supersized intimacy. I have been friends with a few people for as long as 13 years now and the bond that we share has only grown stronger even if we do not talk for as long as a year. 

We are all aware of or even have in our lives, self proclaimed friends, egoistic friends, friends who have identity crisis, troubled friends, always there with you friends, funny friends, smart friends and all the other variety which I can't lay mind on. And for a lot us they are the siblings that God forgot to gave us. Whatever the case, like all relationships, this too works both sided. It is always better to let go off the 'Toxic' friends rather than letting them be the emotional vampires - draining all your energy reserves.

Just be yourself. It doesn't matter if you are not good enough for someone else.

(P.S: This ones for you Krits, Anni, Sabu, Navtej, Naveen.....You guys are my support system.)