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Face of Hanuman appears as we gaze into this rock near Panchmari, M.P. Hanuman is an iconic symbol of friendship in Indian Culture. Second photo gives illusion of Nandi -the cow (Photographs by: rahul) 1601 Willow road, Menlo Park, California has become a new hub of friendship in the 21st century. Today, the meaning of word “Friendship” has been redefined by Facebook, the largest social networking website in the world. It’s more than 1.2 billion users have created a very exotic world around them where they can interact with almost anyone. They can easily reach out to their present and past friends, batch mates, relatives, colleagues and whom so ever available on this site, as and when desired through this medium. At the same time it has given a great platform to make aware to rest of the world...who they are?...what they think and feel?...what they intend to do? ....and so on. It has provided means to rejuvenate old relationships and meet lost friends. One can also showcase personal assets, family members and his own achievements to rest of the world or at least to them who matters in this world. It has now become a medium for professional transactions and business communication. An easy mode to advertise A'an Sel (own self) and their products.
The social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. have connected the whole world together. They have empowered both young and elderly to reach out easily to the society and in fact to the entire world in a most prolific manner. Boundaries of communication have been eroded and expressions have found a new meaning through this medium.
My salute to one of the greatest invention of this Century.
As I got fascinated with the above miracle of today’s civilization, I also happened to read a very old poetry called “Friendship”. In this poem, written by famous eighteen Century British poet William Cooper, the extraordinary relationship called ‘friendship’ has been described in a very vivid manner. It narrates the contemporary definition about friends and friendship which we have been told since our childhood. Here I reproduced few lines from this very long poem:
The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumps upon your back
How he esteems your merit,
Is such a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.
Even after lot of technological development and great advancement in the society, it is felt that the basic definition of friend will not change. Neither will change this very vulnerable relationship called friendship in centuries to come.
Every one needs friend. A person who has the company of good friends is fortunate. Loyal and trustworthy friends are those who can be trusted to be honest whenever called upon. Loyalty is a quality many people search for……in a good friend. Friends matter a lot in our lives and many times when circumstances are not favorable they are the only source of support. In their company we feel comfortable and happy. Friends have the power to frame our destinies and can even change the course of our lives.
An Arabian folklore tells a story about two best friends who were on a long journey through the desert. During the course of journey at some point they had an argument which culminated with one of the friend slapping the other. A silence prevailed between the two and the friend who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything he just bend down and wrote on the sand: “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”. They both continued walking with minimal conversation until they found an oasis. There they decided to take rest after a bath. The friend who had been slapped got stuck in the morass while taking bath and started drowning. The other friend when saw this quickly collected several dried palm leaves braided them together and pulled his friend out. After he recovered from near drowning experience, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life.”
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I slapped you, you wrote on the sand and now when I’d saved your life you’re writing on a stone, why? The friend replied, “When you hurt me I should write it on sand where wind of forgiveness can erase it away. But when something good has happened in my life because of you, I should not erase it but shall remember always. I don’t want to loose my friend and his love for me”
This reveals the secret of prolonged friendship. To sustain friendship we should value more the person rather than his belongings. Even in today’s society where every person is judged by his social status and economic condition still at the bottom of our heart, we value only those friends from whom we can feel some love emanating for us, who are sensitive to our feelings and who really care for us.
Social networking sites have tried to metamorphose the meaning of a friend. The memory space allotted to our Facebook account decides the number of friends we can have. Even in this scenario we feel privileged by number of friends in our account. As this number increase so do our status on the networking site. But don’t we experience that out of the large group of friends, which may be numbered in 100’s, 1000’s or more, a stage comes when we can accommodate no more friends into our account. Have we ever thought that out of this large horde, the score for real friends might be very less? Many of them might not have ever seen our profiles at all, they might not have ever liked our posts or even they might have not browsed our photographs. But still.. they all are our friends.
How do we as a society define a friend? I think the answer is different for all of us, yet we all know that no matter who we may call a friend, true friendship is reserved for those select few who impact every aspect of our lives - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
A friend defines a compassionate relationship of caring, sensitivity and understanding. It is sort of divine relationship where one feels enlighten always:
हो गया हूँ रोशन तुझसे मिलकर कुछ इस तरह,
कि अँधेरों में भी अपना साया नजर आता है ।
हुआ नाखुश यह दिल जब भी कभी हार के,
सहारे को तब दोस्त तेरा काँधा नजर आता है ।
- बाखुद
(I’m enlightened so much since I met you,
That even in the darkness I can see my shadow.
In times when failure has disheartened me,
I’d found a great support in you…My Friend.
- By self )
The social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. have connected the whole world together. They have empowered both young and elderly to reach out easily to the society and in fact to the entire world in a most prolific manner. Boundaries of communication have been eroded and expressions have found a new meaning through this medium.
My salute to one of the greatest invention of this Century.
As I got fascinated with the above miracle of today’s civilization, I also happened to read a very old poetry called “Friendship”. In this poem, written by famous eighteen Century British poet William Cooper, the extraordinary relationship called ‘friendship’ has been described in a very vivid manner. It narrates the contemporary definition about friends and friendship which we have been told since our childhood. Here I reproduced few lines from this very long poem:
The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumps upon your back
How he esteems your merit,
Is such a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.
Even after lot of technological development and great advancement in the society, it is felt that the basic definition of friend will not change. Neither will change this very vulnerable relationship called friendship in centuries to come.
Every one needs friend. A person who has the company of good friends is fortunate. Loyal and trustworthy friends are those who can be trusted to be honest whenever called upon. Loyalty is a quality many people search for……in a good friend. Friends matter a lot in our lives and many times when circumstances are not favorable they are the only source of support. In their company we feel comfortable and happy. Friends have the power to frame our destinies and can even change the course of our lives.
An Arabian folklore tells a story about two best friends who were on a long journey through the desert. During the course of journey at some point they had an argument which culminated with one of the friend slapping the other. A silence prevailed between the two and the friend who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything he just bend down and wrote on the sand: “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”. They both continued walking with minimal conversation until they found an oasis. There they decided to take rest after a bath. The friend who had been slapped got stuck in the morass while taking bath and started drowning. The other friend when saw this quickly collected several dried palm leaves braided them together and pulled his friend out. After he recovered from near drowning experience, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life.”
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I slapped you, you wrote on the sand and now when I’d saved your life you’re writing on a stone, why? The friend replied, “When you hurt me I should write it on sand where wind of forgiveness can erase it away. But when something good has happened in my life because of you, I should not erase it but shall remember always. I don’t want to loose my friend and his love for me”
This reveals the secret of prolonged friendship. To sustain friendship we should value more the person rather than his belongings. Even in today’s society where every person is judged by his social status and economic condition still at the bottom of our heart, we value only those friends from whom we can feel some love emanating for us, who are sensitive to our feelings and who really care for us.
Social networking sites have tried to metamorphose the meaning of a friend. The memory space allotted to our Facebook account decides the number of friends we can have. Even in this scenario we feel privileged by number of friends in our account. As this number increase so do our status on the networking site. But don’t we experience that out of the large group of friends, which may be numbered in 100’s, 1000’s or more, a stage comes when we can accommodate no more friends into our account. Have we ever thought that out of this large horde, the score for real friends might be very less? Many of them might not have ever seen our profiles at all, they might not have ever liked our posts or even they might have not browsed our photographs. But still.. they all are our friends.
How do we as a society define a friend? I think the answer is different for all of us, yet we all know that no matter who we may call a friend, true friendship is reserved for those select few who impact every aspect of our lives - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
A friend defines a compassionate relationship of caring, sensitivity and understanding. It is sort of divine relationship where one feels enlighten always:
हो गया हूँ रोशन तुझसे मिलकर कुछ इस तरह,
कि अँधेरों में भी अपना साया नजर आता है ।
हुआ नाखुश यह दिल जब भी कभी हार के,
सहारे को तब दोस्त तेरा काँधा नजर आता है ।
- बाखुद
(I’m enlightened so much since I met you,
That even in the darkness I can see my shadow.
In times when failure has disheartened me,
I’d found a great support in you…My Friend.
- By self )
This month Setu celebrates its 2nd Anniversary. As I write this post a feeling of sincere gratitude comes from my heart towards all my friends, well wishers and readers of Setu who have supported this very small endeavor by giving their valuable time to read its posts on regular basis. Perhaps I find many of the readers more regular in reading these posts than myself in writing them. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge this relationship.
Please keep connected……
Please keep connected……
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