Partner-in-crime, bhai (brother), yaar (friend); I’m pretty sure these terms remind you of someone. That someone may be one person, or a group of people, that makes you feel at home in this strange world. Those are the people that are your family away from your family. They are the people for whom ‘I’ll be there for you’ was composed in the first place; you guessed it right, they are your FRIENDS. I don’t think I need to tell you how important the presence of a friend is in one’s life.
Who do you turn to when you want to celebrate your crush agreeing to a cup of coffee with you? Or when you want to rant over how that one teacher always changes your seat? Or when you feel like going for a drive and just having a beer and chilling? Friends are always there for you, no matter what.
When I was in school, Friendship Day used to be a big deal. Oh boy, the sheer variety of friendship bands and bracelets that I used to collect- blingy, the spiderman one, the one that says best friend forever and there used to be a special one that you give to the girl or boy you like. I mean these used to be the ground rules for the day. And, if by mistake you used to forget someone, the drama that ensued, I couldn’t describe it even if I tried. But it used to be so much fun. The excitement of collecting the most number of bands, the anxiety of not getting any, and the sheer joy when your crush accepted your special band and gave you one in return! When you think of it now, it does seem childish, but at that time, friendship day used to be a festival. Now we are all grown up and despite not celebrating friendship day the way we used to, don’t you think we can express our friendship more meaningfully with something else other than a band?
The one benefit of being at the age we are now is that we have sorted out the friends that are actually in its truest sense, our friends. The friends we have now will probably be our friends throughout our life. And, I think that is a pretty monumental thing to say. And for a person to hold that much importance in your life, I think we can do better than a band on this friendship day, don’t you? So, on this friendship day let’s make them realise that we always have their back, if they are going through a problem sit them down and just ask them to rant their heart out, or if they have achieved something that they are really happy about showing them that you are with them in their good times as much as you are in their bad times. Or, just simply share a cigarette with them. Sometimes, that’s all they need.
All I’m saying is that on this friendship day, let’s move past the bands and focus on the friendship aspect itself.
Cheers bhailog (friends), and happy friendship day to everyone!