Throughout history, if humans succeeded in being the dominant race on the planet it is because of the bonding and friendship between human beings, whether it is the same gender friendship, opposite gender friendship, workmates, teammates, hunter bonding friendships or homemakers’ friendship. There is something in a friendship that involves total acceptance of the other. I think it is the most universal and most fundamental of all human relationships. HA Dobson who wrote his famous poem on fame and friendship, starts by saying ‘Fame is a food, which dead men eat. I have no room for any such meat’, and goes on to add, but ‘friendship is a beautiful thing. Of friendship it is good to sing. And once a man is no more, he lives on in the memory of his friend.’
In friendships there is a goodness of total acceptance, where you can let down your hair and be as you are. You don't have to wear a mask. In fact, a love between two friends can sometimes be more healthy than romantic love as well. Because there is no need to impress nor put on a mask. Just be your own self. There is acceptance of each other in spite of differences. It is this total acceptance that makes friendship such a validating feeling for all of us.
Now I am not talking about five thousand friends you may have on Facebook or Twitter. I am talking about those few real life friendships that you have. Whether those friendships are new ones, old ones, time tested ones, school friends, it doesn't matter. In fact, throughout history there are some phenomenal friendships mentioned. Like between Krishna and Arjuna who later on had a guru-shishya relationship or between Krishna and Sudama for whom the passage of years did not dim their friendship or between Draupadi and Krishna which did not have romantic overtones. In fact, he used to call her his sakhi, friend in Sanskrit. A good friend is priceless. So, instead of spending time on social media, please go and make a few friends in the real world.
The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
