International Friendship Day

1st August is dedicated for the friends and friendship. It is the day, like so many other days, to call one’s friends and tell them how dearly a position they occupy in one’s heart. And as each and every person does so, the love and bondage of friendship chain gets stronger.

As for me, I read the quote, “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” very early in my schooling, but really did not understand the true meaning of it. For me everyone in my class who spoke nicely to me was my friend, or so I thought. One day a few such “friends’ came to my home and when my father asked as to who had come, I told him that my “friends” had come to see me. He looked towards me for a while and said, “Son, they are not your friends but just acquaintances.” He also once said that anyone who boasted had more than 3-4 friends, was a liar. I didn’t get what my father had said as for me they were “all” my friends. And then time went by, I left my elementary school for the high school. And all those “friends’ withered away as I made new “friends” again.

But as I grew, the wisdom of what my father had said decades ago, started to take shape and its true meaning slowly started to unfold. Now after so many years and just a couple of friends that still cling to me, I now understand what is a friend and what “a friend in need is a friend indeed” really matters. Friendship develops over a period of time with people of similar interests and age group. Friendship means confiding in each other everything without the fear of being betrayed. A friend is the one who knows one’s inside out, but still loves and likes to be friend. In other words, a friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

There are many quotes and quotation that describe a friend. But one knows from one’s heart, who is a friend and who is not.

And for those lucky ones who have friends, the first Sunday of the month of August is dedicated to them. Are you one of those lucky ones? If so, then happy friendship day.