Understanding Friendship...

A friend brings laughter even in tears,
A friend shares your hopes and dreams,
A friend believes in you when faith is running low,
A friend makes the world we live in, a better and a happy place,
A friend shows you that the greyest day is brighter than it seems,
A friend reduces your burden by sharing both your joy as well as pain,
A friend encourages you to take up new challenges, always assuring his help,
A friend has a caring heart whose warmth and patience never seem to have an end.

Memories of a friend makes you smile. Friendship is such a relationship that cannot be completely described either in words or in any other form. As we are human, it would be obvious to have many fellow human beings as our friends. But think of friendship with other souls present in nature. Many centuries ago, man started the practice of domestication of animals and birds for companionship and amusement. Later, this led to man-animal and man-bird friendship. Even today you find many people having pets at home. Pets at home don't remain as mere companions but are treated as friends; they share a relationship with everyone to finally become a member of the family.

Let us try to find out more about the relationship or some kind of a bond which exists between man and other objects of nature. Who can explain this to us? Ask the old man who takes his dogs out for a walk; ask the fat lady who feeds the pigeons every morning; ask the fortune teller who keeps roaming around with his parrot; ask the circus man who rides his horse daily; ask the young man who feeds squirrels in his garden with nuts; ask the cute little village boy who plays with the rabbits; ask the little girl who spends most of her time round the aquarium feeding the tiny fish; ask the shepherd about his flock; ask the cowherd who takes his herd for grazing; etc. All of them tend to give a common answer that the relation they share is nothing but friendship, proving that friendship is possible between every soul which exists in nature.

Here, I would like to narrate a true story of a human-bird friendship. This story dates back to early 1990’s. When I was studying in primary school, there used to be an old beggar sitting under a banyan tree that was opposite to our school gate. The passerby gave him coins and people living in the nearby houses gave him leftover food. A crow lived with him, sitting sometimes on his shoulders, sometimes on his head and his lap. It used to always stay with him and both the old man and the crow ate from the same bowl. If the crow found food somewhere, it would fly and get the food in its beak, sit beside the man and eat, such was their friendship. The beggar used to get water from somewhere in a bottle and would pour it in his palm, the crow would stand on his wrist and drink water from his palm. All day the old man used to talk something with the crow and in response, the crow cawed. People around used to say that the crow, in its previous birth might have been a close relative of the old man and in this birth a close friend. After an year or two, when we had summer vacation, the old man and his pal left that place, don’t know the reason why, but they were gone wandering, never to be seen again. The duo left leaving behind a moral that friendship can be done by a soul with every other soul in nature.

Shooting seedling is a symbol of new life and growth and when you water it every day, after some days a certain bond gets created between the plant and you and the day when it becomes a big tree, you get reminded of the day when you first put the seedling into the soil and watered. All these days you have been observing growth in the plant and today, it’s a huge tree. You share a friendly relationship with that tree. If we think a little beyond, yes, friendship is possible with almost everything; did you ever feel that the mango tree in your backyard is your friend? You spend most of your childhood playing underneath it; you ate the delicious fruits of the tree; you read lessons sitting in its shade; you climbed on its branches and escaped your father’s beating; is the tree not doing every task a friend is expected to do?

Look at the flower in the garden, in spite of having a short life span, it pleases our eyes with its bright colors and fills our nostrils with its fresh fragrance. Though it cannot speak, still it has life and can be made a friend too.

I would like to give a real life example to prove how a friendly bond first starts between a man and an animal and steadily develops into a strong bond that later becomes an inseparable one. One of my friends had a pet dog, everyone in his house loved it very much and the cute little dog responded with equal affection. It was considered one among the family members. We friends used to like the innocent looks of the pretty white dog. Whenever we visited his house, the dog would recognize each one of us and move around wagging its tail. Also, it would stand on its hind legs and give a handshake. All of a sudden, one day it got sick and was down with a deadly disease. Doctors tried everything which was possible but their attempts went in vain, leaving the dog struggle with lot of pain. Finally, unable to resist the disease, the dog gave up its fight for survival and its soul got liberated leaving everyone shocked. My friend and his family were struck with grief and couldn't digest the fact that it no longer exists. My friend pronounced on the day that never again should they have a dog as a pet in their house; his family agreed. After almost a year, they somehow accepted the fact but its memories will never leave them. They were very much upset by the incident and dropped the idea of going for a pet dog again.

No soul can ever overcome the pain in losing a friendly soul's company. Everyone hopes that friendship to remain intact as long as they live. God has given his creation a beautiful bond between hearts, a boon called 'friendship', which is as vital in this world as breath is for a living soul.