For The Sake Of Fraandsheep

"One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention." - Clifton Fadiman

Its a strange custom this "Friendship Day", it is on this day that an innocent friendship blossoms between a boy and a girl - and it ends on Valentine's Day when the boy gets rejected by the girl after he proclaims his love. I honestly don't get what the big deal is about friendship day, why do you need a day to state the bleeding obvious - to proclaim your loyalty, devotion, love, and faith towards someone whom you know well enough or are acquainted to? Why the formality I ask! The only people who benefit from having such kind of moronic customs are the greeting card companies and Zee Cafe and Star World. While Hallmark and Archies sell "Friendship Band", which during my college days was a symbol of popularity - the more you had the more popular you were, I can't believe they still do that, whereas the Star Worlds and Zee Cafes run a seven hour marathon of F.R.I.E.N.D.S - a sitcom which is normally telecasted on a weekday for half-an-hour.

And what's with tagging people on photos on Facebook? Its not like its a group photo where you can see your face, its not a forgotten poignant moment which you had captured in your camera that you shared with your friends - its a bloody .jpg image of a greeting card with "FRIENDS FOREVER" or a couplet inscribed in it - which you probably had google searched, how thoughtful and how imaginative! Do you think people find it touching to have their profile tagged to some random  photo which is "liked" by a bunch of idiots and commented on by dozen other morons who at the most respond with "Happy friendship day :-) " Well I have news for you, you just spammed their mailbox which now will be flooded with notifications from Facebook about some Tom, Dick or Harry whom you had tagged in that photo. Do yourself a favor, stop shouting over the rooftops about how true and everlasting friendship is, most of the true and everlasting ones are forged with a bond that is not spoken of, but are displayed - in those minute gestures that go unnoticed by our eyes but are safely deposited within the treasury of our heart. 

Its in those little moments where you share a cup of coffee with your friends whilst you bitch about your job, you have heard your friend say it before but you lend them your ear because you know they'd do the same if it were you. Its in those long-distance phonecalls that last an hour where you talked of nothing that made sense, yet it was something that made you feel belonged - a reassuring feeling that distance and time will not corrode what you share. It is in that gesture when you save a seat for your friend on a crowded bus, it may not speak much - but it for sure says "I am here for you". They are hidden within those human contacts which we have taken for granted be it that bear hug that we get, or that ruffle of our hair, that arm around our shoulder or that prank that we play. It is engraved in the liberty that we have with our friends, we count on them to finish off our lunch that we hate to eat, we count on them to share our grief, we count on them to be there at our moment of glory, we count on them to be watching our back in our time of despair.

Over the years I have been blessed with friends and have forged relationships for which I am grateful, some have lasted and some have withered away thanks to a juvenility and indifference of my own, which may not make me the right person to speak about the sanctity of such relationship, but then haven't we all been let down and have let down the ones whom we believed in? Yet, what it had in common while it blossomed was those moments of togetherness and the feeling that this would last forever. Its after the seeds of friendship have planted that one needs to groom it with care. So, stop abusing the emotions involved in this relationship, stop being a prey to greedy corporations that play you like a violin with their "Friendship Day" offers, stop updating your walls, quit sending cheesy smses, and for the love of God - stop tagging people on artificial soulless photos that will be forgotten as the days go by. For the sake of fraandsheep, be there for them when you need them, that in itself is a testament of what you share.