Importance of Friends

FRIEND- a 6-letter word that seems so insignificant, yet carries so much weight, responsibility and other things that can’t be described. Our life is adorned with so many friends, some who are dear to us, and some the hi-hello types. As I read somewhere- A man’s life is not measured by the wealth he accumulates, but by the number of friends he makes.

From a very young life, we’re paired with people who contribute, share and cry along with us, thus imbibing the tendency to befriend people naturally. Yes, there are people who are introvert or aren’t too friendly, but these are few and far. The word “FRIEND” held no real importance for me, apart from the sitcom-“FRIENDS”, which made Jennifer Aniston popular as RACHEL and which I adored to the extent that I wanted to be like JOEY.

But over the past month, in an alien town, I realized the true value of the term. It involves 8 people whom I had never even met in my life, but who became real good friends over the course of a month. The company where I was interning had allotted us a flat, which I was to share with 8 other guys, one of whom was my college mate, the only known face among the millions in the city. I couldn’t imagine how I would survive a month, with nothing to do or to pass my time.

But as my training started, I was fortunate to meet 3 guys, with whom time used to fly. I’d have to mention Siddharth here. I used to bicker with him all the time, friendly banter, but we got along pretty well, and with him having a vehicle, meant that we 5 (the 5th being my college mate) would squirm after lunch to do some sight-seeing, or have fun. Then there was Prakash, I had never met a guy who could give such crude one-liners, which were hilarious to no extent. I am sure that if he were to join the advertising industry, he would become real famous. And there was also Sandeep, the good guy of the group, the silent one diligently doing his work. The daytime was hell of a time.

And while I had lot of fun in the day time, my nights weren’t so bad either. My flat mates were colleagues from NIT, Rourkela (except one). Jamshedpur ain’t a metropolitan place, with few places to hang out. But we managed to see all of the places within a month, inter spaced with the evenings spent talking, or watching movies, or even going on cycling excursions. Yes, there were moments also when I felt so bored, felt like going back home, but those were far and few in between.

I have got to mention my room mate though. There were 3 people in each room, so me and my college mate, were sharing a room with this guy, who happened to be from Symbiosis, and was also doing his interning in another unit of the company. He had brought along a bed, and also a cooler. That cooler made our day as the days were pretty hot, and the cooler proved to be a boon. He seemed very rich from his conversations, and we wondered half the time, whether his words were even true or not. But he was a decent guy, who used to go god-knows where, even managed to fit in a 9 day trip to Delhi, with no care what-so-ever. But we got along pretty well.

Our bond of friendship got even closer on 7th June. We all decided to have a big night time party, and have a lot of fun. We got some food and drinks, and everyone had a real gem of a time, it was worthwhile to get to know these people from up-close, and to know that the time we had spent together would remain special to all of us.

And as my time came to an end in Jamshedpur, we all vowed to keep in touch through any means possible, with invitations open to our respective home towns. And at that moment, I remembered some lines from the movie “ A Lot Like Love” - The times spent together remain special as long as we remain strangers, and it gets spoiled the instant we meet again in the future. And as we said our byes, I wondered, more in hope that I would get a chance to meet these people again, even if to remind myself that I’d a heck of a time for a month with these guys.