.F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Friends are the essence of life.
Friends are like stars you don't always see them but you know they are always there.
Friend in need is a friend indeed
etc etc...

I too have friends. I love having friends. I love making friends. I love being with my friends. I LOVE MY FRIENDS. (no pun intended friends!)

For me friends fall in different categories.
Best friend/s, real friends, good friends, hi-bye friends, acquaintances, conversation friends, business friends, far of friends, cousin friends, social friends, private friends, temporary friends, permanent friends, just friends, more than friends, cant-patoofy-her-that's-why friends etc etc

I have a core group of friends from school, all of whom I am in regular touch with. All of whom are what I classify as best friends and real friends.
Some other best and real friends I made through the journey of life at Mumbai, in UK, in college, while working etc.

Then there are people who I love to hang out with or talk to or go partying with etc.

Then there are friends who are just friends. In touch occasionally either when they have some work with me or vice-versa. We still share a good rapport & don't dislike doing or returning favours but these are not what I can all good friends. They are just work friends.

Then there are friends that I made while working & I work with some of my friends too(as my clients or agencies)

Then there are 5 tonnes of acquaintances. 3 tonnes of cousin friends (friend ka friend=cousin friend). About a tonne hi-bye friends. Some temporary friends & then some (undefined) friends here & there!!

The important thing is I have friends & I love to have friends.
Friends are like family. Infact an 'uncensored' family. You can do all the unmentionables with them/with their knowledge/with their consent/ with their support or plainly without being afraid of them.

Infact that way I think rather than saying friends are like family why cant we say 'Family should be like friends!' You just go to a member of your family & say "hey chu**** wassup" & the other person won't raise his eyebrows high enough to touch the sky & reply "nothing chu**** the usual." You can go & take a family members case, tease them on how they were drunk the last night or how the girl ditched him. Put him in some embarrassing situation just for Clean Fun. Put your arms around someone from the family & tell him yaar 'light' de. Or tell a family member "seth ek large lanaa!" Sharing the 'stats' of a hot chink standing near by, with a family member. Plotting to go & propose someone with the help of a family member. Discussing all kinds of stuff freely. Going out for long drives late at night with a can of beer. Wouldn't that be fun??

Well I have various types of friends, who I love to spend time with. A huge number of them are very funny. No not only with the sense of Humor but with also their habits or behaviours. I have a friends who is a compulsive exaggerator. His age ranges from 27 to 36. His marital status is both married & single. He has around 1 to 3 kids. He gets paid ranging from 15,000 to 1,00,000. He has a work experience ranging from 4years to 14 years. Seriously I am not exaggerating here. My friend does better than me at that! But nevertheless I enjoy his company. i like to be with him. So he is my friend. Others like him or not is their problem not mine!

Another friend of mine stays in imaginations. He lives in imagination. Does business, takes career decisions, shares stories, shares his daily chores; all in dreams. No match with real life & reality. But well I don't have too big an issue with that! I enjoy all his dreams, imaginations, ideas, "asa karun takla asta apann".

A friend of mine cant remember names. He calls anyone by anyname that remotely has one or two same alphabates. For him Sanjiev is Raju, Nishant is Neeraj etc. But he is fun to be with so....

A friend of mine lives like a zombie. He can sit idle for hours without talking to anyone. He just stares into nothing & entertains himself. No he doesnt have a serious mental problem. He is like that only!

A friend of mine repeats everything that he says for atleast 3 times. (no exaggerations) You ask him one question & he will repeat the same answer for umpteen times. Moreover without clearly answering your question!
( I guess I will have to do another post on my friends & my interactions with them)

So, I have loads of friends.
But, How do you make friends? Or how did I make friends? Don't know. No formula.
Friendship is all about WAVE-LENGTH. Jiske saath wavelength match ho gaya woh friend. Jiske saath nahi hua woh acquaintance!
I have friends from diverse backgrounds. I met them all at different places. They belong to various age brackets. Also from various economic backgrounds. But all of them are my Friends!

There is something about panwalaas being my friends! I have always made good friends with paanwaalas! For some weird unexplained reason! I was never a big or generous customer. But yet something about me made them good friends. One paanwalla from when I was in Mumbai is still in touch with me. (Its like 6 years now). He always calls me & updates himself about my latest happenings. Another paanwaala from Nasik even used to call me when I was in UK just to see if I was doing alright. (My friends also called dint call me so regularly. Only a few I can count on fingertips made it a point to be updated about my status. Rest updated themselves through knowledge from these guys or the paanwaala!) Again no pun intended with the paanwaala story. Very pure FRIENDSHIP! I don't know are your thoughts adulterated or mine....

I never had GOOD BOYS as my friends. My mom always said 'I should make friends only with GOOD BOYS', but they never were friends with me; I guess their moms told them the same thing! ;-)

I cant imagine a life without friends. Its like leading a life without any senses; hearing, smelling, tasting. One can still lead a life without senses (tasting, smelling & hearing). But it would be very bland, tasteless & well smelless!

Most of my life revolves around hanging out with friends or making new friends. Again I dont take consious efforts to be friends with someone but if I want to develop a rapport with someone maybe a client or someone I develop friendship with them. That ways the relation becomes informal & gives me space to develop better rapport with the other person.

So here is a salute to all my friends for being my friends. I don't know how life would have been without you all. As one of my closest to heart friend once said, " How boring would our life will be if we had no friends. Kisiki ga*d maare bina how could we breathe!
Cheers mates!