Google gives two dates on which IFD is celebrated – 30th July and 3rd August. I have been receiving Happy Friendship day messages since last two days and therefore, presume it’s alright to write something about IFD today.
In the matter of friends, I consider myself lucky having quite a few set of time tested friends. The first set consists of school friends and relationship with them goes back to almost six decades. Second set is that of my friends in my first organisation that I was employed in – these are mainly my batchmates and few others whose support in my early professional days made them very special. My batchmates recently celebrated 40 years of our association and 14-15 of them celebrated the anniversary date together at a scenic location. Third set is my last organisation where I spent almost three decades and developed some very close association. This apart, there are other acquaintances, including neighbours, and a few of them certainly qualify to be called friends.
What makes friendship superior to all other relationships is it being bereft of all formalities, protocols or burden! It’s all about sharing thoughts, views, laughters, sorrows etc without any strings attached.
To quote a few lines by Kahlil Gibran on friendship:
“And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.
And he answered, saying:
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.”
And in my own humble words:
“Life is a roller coaster,
Full of crests and troughs galore;
When life is down in dumps,
A friend makes our heart go up and soar!
Happy international friendship day.
Arvind Arya blog 