All those childhood fables seem to be a distant dream now. The pretty girl that insisted on sitting beside you might nowadays be not entertaining you at all. The boy who did fight on your behalf would have turned your competitor at the present. What may be most baffling is the attitude of your present buddies. They might be taking note of your every single action to repay you when the time arrived. Where are those selfless friends who would stake everything for you even without caring for your consent? Aren’t they lost somewhere amid the chaos of gifts and celebrations.
I do not argue against the viability of parties and presents on the friendship day eve. The only thing I would like to point towards is the triviality of such show-offs. Elbert Hubbard has rightly affirmed the moral fiber of a true friend,
"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you."
The solidity of your comradeship should not depend upon the weight of presents or the word meaning of the psalms you sang for your friend. It should instead reflect the amount of love and respect you command irrespective of your circumstances. Friendship ensues your willingness to like someone for what he is. The contrary is true for most of the situations and this is the reason for the perky nature of today’s friendship.
People meet in haste, exchange their views and then depart in equal alacrity. Those who remain with you need continual testimony of your suitability and adaptability. You are always alert to present yourself in the most appealing and acceptable manner, lest it should hurt your alliance. What a pity it is to falsely praise a person to be able to call him a friend. Does it not make sense to include a special subject on friendship in curriculums? It has already started in bits and pieces on the internet and has affected the natural process of initiation of a healthy relationship between two or more people at large, the youngsters being the most severely mislead.
Friends that calculate your worth on whatsoever parameters are not lifetime companions. They are not to be trusted for testing times. If you like making friends, choose not the ones who are polite but choose the ones who are criticizing and stand for you at the need of the hour. Choose not the ones who expect to dine with you in a restaurant but go for the person who can do away with a cup of tea. It is this variety of people who provide happiness in a relationship. The parting idea would be remind you of the words of Walter Winchell that are very clear in their meaning,
"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
