Lucky are those who have true friends. It is true, that as we become older, we lose the capacity to make true friends. It is in mid-childhood that a person makes friends easily. Say a six year old or an eleven year old would make friends more easily than those in their teens. However, it is in teenage that friendships flourish the most. A friend’s opinion, likes and dislikes count the most during the teens and stretch into early twenties – when personal opinions tend to develop steadily.

     As we age we start losing the capacity to make friends easily; primarily due to doubts that creep up with experiences, we tend to put up invisible barriers that did not exist in our childhood. We start to make acquaintances, rather than friends and are satisfied with such relationships. Our fast paced lives, leave little time for indulgences like friendship. Unfortunately it is only during adverse times that we miss having true friends and strong bonds with others.

The friends that we make in our childhood and college life, are the ones that we turn to – when life becomes slow paced, with increasing age and diminishing responsibilities. Once more those very happy moments of youth are sought after amongst friends who remain prized possessions of a lifetime.

One of the best groups of friends that I have experienced in my life, is that of my youngest uncle and his friends. They were a group of young men in their twenties in my earliest memories. Always hanging out together and helping each other and their families, on all occasions. Be it a wedding or a grief in a family, my uncle and his friends were always there to take care of everything. Gradually they got married, had their own occupations and grew in their own fields. Some of them reached the zenith of their careers and became immensely successful. Each of them seemed to be a part of the family. When one among the five expired due to heart attack in his forties, the others were left devastated. This wonderful friend circle is still going strong, and I am really lucky to have witnessed such a close knit group of friends.

Friendship adds value to life. In life we must learn to listen to our heart while making friends. It is said that ‘Birds of the same feather flock together’. It implies, that we must choose our friends wisely and be good human being and friend ourselves; to be able to have fine friends. Betrayal in friendship is extremely hurtful and crops due to envy. So it is extremely necessary to check envy when its fangs emerge for the first time. Nothing could have hurt Caesar more than the stabs of his dear friend Brutus.

A true friend is one that we enjoy being with and can count on in being with us through thick and thin. With a true friend we can be ourselves without a bother and express our imperfections and vulnerabilities without a second thought. We can enjoy the soothing silence of each other’s company and simply relax.  

Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and have her nonsense respected.

Charles Lamb

A lucky few still do have such friends, but most youngsters have a large following of friends, but none too close to be true ones. This is generating loneliness among the young generation. Social media is adding to this feeling of alienation, where everyone is busy giving time to people who don’t really count, and avoiding direct communication with the near and dear ones.

Most of us don’t need a psychiatric therapist as much as a friend to be silly with.      

Robert Brault

Being lonely in a crowd is becoming the norm in today’s society. Once more it is time for us to pave the way for finding true friends, to have the comforting security of friends for life.

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.