Friendship's day- And what it means to a 27 year old! :)

I still remember the first time I had to explain the term "Friendship's day" to my family... To my teen eyes, they looked so "disillusioned" for not believing in a day that was so important to me. I was even mean enough to tell my mum, she wouldn't understand 'coz she really didn't have friends- All her friends were wives of dad's friends. You needed to feel something stronger to understand the true meaning of the day... (In hindsight I realize I was behaving like a teenager.)


At 15, the first Sunday of August was the day I took special permission from gharwallas to spend the evening with friends... I remember all the friendship's day melas we visited over the years. And how Archies & Expressions Greeting Cards helped, make us believe, that the epitome of friendship was gifting your friend a 'friendship's band' and a cute card; even a gift sometimes (if your pocket money would suffice). It really was a big deal to my teenage self. I went all out... writing poetry, getting flowers, making friendship bands, buying gifts and cards... The whole nine yards! 


And I had a huge bunch of friends. So naturally I'd have to be creative. Some years I'd make my own cards... and some years my own friendship bands... But there was never a year when my friends didn't get some sort of trivia just because 'they were friends.' :)


Over the years I have often thought about continuing this tradition and sending a surprise gift to a close-friend via courier, just to say "I'm thinking of you. And you are important to me." But I have never acted upon this instinct till date. It doesn't mean, I don't have good friends 'coz really I do. Or that I claim these materialistic things have no meaning, "sab mithya hai" types- Hey, I don't believe that either. But there's something that stops me from being as demonstrative to my friends as I was before. Basically I no longer believe in the concept of 'friendship's day' and I find myself as disillusioned about it as my parents once were. But for different reasons of course.


At 27, it just feels so lame to have just one day dedicated to all those people who make your world richer. How can we tell them on one day "Hey I'm glad we are friends, 'coz u r an important part of my life" and not follow it up with our actions for the next 364 days...


Isn't friendship supposed to be the easiest relation to work with? Isn't it about 'like minded people staying together', no questions asked, because they like to? Isn't it about, 'no guilt attached relationships' where you're doing things because you want to, not because you ought to! And most importantly, isn't it about sharing time together, and speaking about normal regular stuff to get a neutral perspective that your husbands/ wives/ girl friends or boy friends can't give you!


I'm sure Friendship means different things to different people. For me, there are friends I love shopping with, others I miss having coffee with... There are 'get-a-beauty-treatment-together' friends and have-soul-searching-conversations- together friends. But really friendship is about a choice- A choice we execute when we say, "I choose to be your friend, 'coz I love how you make me feel. And I'd like to feel that way always." :)


So on friendship's day I dedicate this blog to all my friends- I'm sure you're wondering why you haven't received a call or an sms from me on friendship's day. But you're on my mind and I'm sure you know why I love you. :)


xoxo