A new friend

Friendship’s day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August, this year the friendship’s day arrived on the 4^th of August. I am not a person with lots of friends, I can count them on my fingertips. My WhatsApp groups were flooded with friendship’s day messages; school group, college group, ex-offices groups, family groups, etc. I don’t like to leave any message unread, it was all same old things. A few years back, when I was pursuing a Diploma in Advertising, Airtel (telecommunication brand) came up with a jingle and a musical ad, “Har ek friend jaroori hota hai” They showcased all kinds of friends; believe me, that time I had friends which could fit in all the categories. Slowly, I liked to be aloof from all of them.

As I woke up in the morning, I wished my husband, “Happy friendship day.” He is my best friend now. I was busy in my daily schedule. As it was Sunday, I spend a lot of time cleaning the house and hence, I preferred taking a late bath. It was 11 O’clock and my son just had a bath and I was dressing him up. The doorbell rang and there was a flock of kids, “Aunty, where is Arjun?” “Oh my god! What happened?” I gasped at the kids. “We want to tie friendship band to him,” said the kids. “Oh yes!” I had forgotten this tradition. They all waited patiently to tie bands on his hand. Kids ranged from the age of 8-18 years. They were all so cute. The eldest of friend stays in the apartment across the hallway on the same floor. She loves my son and likes to spend time with him. She is in grade 12 now, and I admire the way she studies and concentrates on the things she does. She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. My son was sad because he had no bands to tie them back. To cheer him up I told him, “Arjun has so many bands and I have none.” I also made a sad face. The 18-year-old said, “I have one for you.” I did not expect this. My happiness had no limit. I showed off my band to my husband, he laughed, “It is just a band for her, she wanted to make you happy.

I was in my own world, touching the band again and again. I remembered all the friendship days I celebrated in my school and college days. I thought of calling them all and thanking them for the wonderful memories. I don’t talk to my school friends every day, but whenever I do, it feels just like yesterday when we were sharing tiffin boxes and benches. All of us have grown up, we all have our own families to look after but whenever we meet, we end up talking about the same things we did in the school, and we laugh on the same jokes time and again.

Friendship day celebrated with college friends 5/8/2006

Now it does not matter, who was the best friend and who was the enemy. It does not matter if we meet and talk regularly or after years, school friends never judge, they were with you then, and they will be with you in the future whenever you need them. There is something about childhood friends that you can’t just replace.