Value of Friendship

At times I’m bemused by how people use the word ‘Friend’!

At times I’ve been introduce by people I hardly know as ‘a friend of mine’ or ‘a good friend of mine’! And I’ve always thought what so ever happened to the word ‘Acquaintance’. Why doesn’t anybody ever introduce someone as ‘Here’s Avi, an acquaintance of mine and we met at a conference’!

When I use the word ‘Friend’ it’s because I consider someone a friend. For me ‘Friendship knows no bounds’, it is the purest relationship in the world and the foundation for any relationship, hence based on ‘Trust’.

Some of my ‘so-called friends’ think I’m being overly emotionally and foolish when I trust a friend, and I keep thinking is that so?

I’ve always been preached to trust and value friends and friendship, and that’s exactly what I’ve done my whole life.

I do agree that in the journey of life I’ve come across people who call them selves my friends, call not ‘consider’ and I fail to understand that! And that left me with a hurting back!!! But not all those who call you a friend are ‘back-stabbers’, so the question is how do you differentiate between a friend and a fiend? According to me its ‘tough times’ and ‘situations’ that separate the two.

A true friend stands by you through your good times and bad times, supports you, comforts you, laughs with you when you laugh and makes you laugh when you cry, understands you!!!

So how do u differentiate your true friends? You go to movies, lunches,dinners, shopping, outings et al with your friends but are they your true friends? Somebody who would stand by you forever?

For me, going to movies or shopping would be just an excuse to spend some quality time with my friend..the place or what we do wouldn't matter! So I guess, a true friend lifts your spirits!

Being a true Marathi gal, I’ve always been inspired by Shivaji and his life…and this particular passage inspired me a lot:

It was when Jijabai, tells little Shivaji to gather friends who would stand by him always, lay their lives on the line for him and “swarajya” and always watch his back.

I’ve been so impressed with this, that I’ve put this into practice. I’ve always had friends who would do the anything for me and I would do the same for them.

There have been several such incidences in my life where my friends have stood by me, but a recent incident made me realize how much my friends care about me.

Recently, a friend of mine (say X) posted a testimonial for me on a social networking site, that could have had hidden implications. Well, I took it sportingly and went ahead to publish it. Soon, I had dozens of friends replying and disagreeing with this person X and posting their views about me.

My friend X was enraged at me. From what I understood (from the talks we had) it was at how all of my friends supported me!! According to her "all my friends came loaded with words to save my reputation getting tarnished". It really surprised me, coz I thought it was ok for friends to come in and support if they thought a friend was in need. I explained to her, that I would have done the same if anyone had tried to taint my friends’ character in public including her!

For me it’s the most natural thing in the world to stand by and support my friends no matter what! But obviously everyone has different opinions.

The true value of friendship and what it means to me, cant be expressed in mere words… but it would be fair enough to say “it means the world to me and I owe my life to friendship” and hence, today I reminisce all my dearest friends to whom this post I dedicated …..to all my dearest friends who have stood by me, supported me and been there with me through all the thicks and thins, odds and evens in life!!

p.s : The reason for this posting is to tell all my friends how blessed I am that i've them. And I should have done this before........ years back!! Thank U for being with me thru' those dark times! :)