Friendship...

Aug 1st......Friendship day arrives with friendship bands,smses that glorify friendship and we all pledge to stick to our friends till the end of our lives....It is a great day for fancy shopkeepers as they do brisk business...Most of the times,we find people wearing around 10 friendship bands on both their hands and it is a matter of pride for them that they have so many bands with them...I still remember how many of my schoolmates used to buy 2 friendship bands...one-to tie onto their friend's wrist and the other to make that (rather popular) friend tie onto his own hand..As i type,i receive an sms from a boy with whom i hardly talk,wishing me a happy friendship day in advance...would he send me that sms if he didn't have an sms booster in his phone?Probably not..I myself used forward friendship day greeting to the groups in my mobile..Lets reflect for a while on what friendship has been through the ages....
Man has always been a social animal...He has realized the importance of socializing right from his evolution.People can never live in isolation.They need mutual cooperation to achieve their goals and to meet their aspirations.This has led to friendship.We learn so many lessons from stories of true friendship.Rama and Sugreeva,Karna and Duryodhana stand tall as emulative examples of true friendship.They lived for their friends and died for them..But is that how it is today??
Today,friendship is more about status rather than the coming together of similar minds.The more friends you have,the more you can boast about.Friendship,these days,is merely a way to pass the time and to overcome the inner emptiness.Socializing is the order of the day..Often we talk to our "friends" being cautious not to be committal on anything.This is of course,the way to safeguard yourself,but is that friendship?People are brought together by the force of circumstances and they become "friends".
Friendship is more of a necessity nowadays.I find it really amusing when people ask me,"Did you get a lot of friends in college"?Actually,Y should i find a lot of friends?Isn't it enough if i have 2 or 3 understanding guys with whom i can share whatever i want to?What,really is the point in having too many friends?Fun and frolic,maybe..But,is that the aim of our lives?What about those times when i go through a lean patch?Of course,we can never do all we want by ourselves,but is friendship the answer to all that?Men work in  offices,and help each other,maintaining a formal relationship.They are not necessarily friends.Maybe,it is because of my shy nature or perhaps my DNA's orientation,i have never found it necessary to have a close relationship with too many people.I don't know whether its right or wrong,but this is how i think..
We live in an age of social networking.
Everybody falls into social networking at some stage in their lives..I too opened a fb account in the second week of this month-to spread this blog.I was stunned when fb actually predicted who my friends might be with nearly flawless accuracy.Bit scared,too..What followed was a battle of the mind.I found many people having more than 200 friends..But, can anybody have 200 friends from a practical sense?I never knew that friendship grew through requests.I thought it bloomed naturally.fb seemed to be a way of maintaing a cool image,one very,very different from one's actual character..I received a request from a boy whom i never knew.I didn't know if he would be notified if i rejected his request,so i accepted it..i didn't want him to feel bad..may be,his views are different,but how can there be friendship between 2 people who hold completely different views?Moreover,what is the necessity in being friends with people whose character i have no idea of?all this seemed too much to my reflective mind,and i deleted my fb account in a week.It was a huge sigh of relief..
It just didn't make sense to believe in advaita and have a fb account,simultaneously.Many accuse me of thinking like an old crap,but i would rather be old than do what i hate.Not everyone is the same..fb thinks otherwise..
Sugreeva in the Ramayana says,
"धना त्यागः गृह त्यागः
देगा त्यागो    विभाहुनाहा
वयास्यारथे  प्रवार्थंनथे
स्नेहम ध्रिश्त्व ताथा विधं"
(Noble men hardly ever enter into a friendship with the people of the world.But once they enter into one,they are ready to sacrifice their  wealth,house or even their body for the sake of their friends).
How many of your fb friends satisfy this criteria?
We cannot do anything about all this...This is indeed a reflection of the lives we live...
Ambarish