A friend in need is a friend indeed--Really?

A friend in need is friend indeed- a test handed down the ages for man to test if the person you trust is a true friend or not. I agree that its a good way to judge a man but i wouldn’t agree if it is to be projected as the only test or the finest test. I would contest in this post that it tests a person partially and does not take into account the needs of a man when he is happy.

Lets first see why it is said that a friend in need is a friend indeed. When a man is in need then he might be in financial need or an emotional need or physical need or a in any combination of the above mentioned three. Now a financial need can be satisfied monetarily, emotional need by just being there and lending support and the physical need by just extending a hand at the right moment. Anyone who is there at that hour is truly a friend but as it goes that there is light at the end of a dark tunnel. A man’s suffering, unless willed otherwise by god, does not remain forever.

Lets now analyse the same person who was once in need but is now well off, with everything going his way. At this juncture when he is happy, he needs someone to share his joy. Now if at this point that saviour friend gets jealous, cynical, jeering or at the worst despite being in the know of things decides to ignore you, then that person is at the same footing as a person who betrays when one is in need. People might say that when one is happy one can share joy with anyone but i would like to counter it by saying that when we don’t rush to every person we know when in need then why should the case be different when the tide turns? To be winning and not being able to share the happiness of winning is worse than not winning at all.

So in my eyes a true friend is a person who is truly dedicated to you. For him/her in an old fashioned way your pain is his/her’s pain and your happiness is his/her’s happiness. There’s no point in running behind people who can justify either of the roles as sooner or later they would inflict an equal amount of pain. And for everyone who has that sort of friend but is being sidelined in ignorance, to them i would suggest to wake up and take notice as such people are real gems.

At The End All That Remains is I

It surprises how we spend our lives searching for people who will support us, love us, care for us and for that special one who will spend rest of their life with us. But i wonder why no one realises that at the end its I who is there and nobody else. Its I who lives life. Be it nourishment of the body, feeling the emotions, going to work and for that matter any activity, its I who is there. And still its this I which is treated with disdain and contempt. Its that I who is subjected to ridicule when that I decides to pursue its dreams. Its that I which is labelled as selfish by others when it decides to think for itself. And it feels painful when that I succumbs to the external pressure and yields in to the demands of killing that I.
I have been lucky to be allowed to nourish my I but i feel sad for some of my friends whose identities are being crushed under the pretence of following the mores of the society. Why can't everyone realise that even when you live, let alone die, its that I which stays along while everything else leaves?

Peace At Last!! (An out of world experience)

Time stops for no one and i guess i ain't so lucky that life would make an exception for me. Its just like that college started yesterday and now the time is such that i am making plans and taking decisions as to what i would do next. It was a tough call between taking admission in an MBA college or joining my father's business. But in this case i have been lucky. God made the decision for me. He made me falter on the day it mattered and shut the doors to the colleges i desired. It hurt, hurt badly but i guess one only learns when one is hurt. The pain makes one extra perceptive to the circumstances around. Being down and out did a good thing to me. It woke true me up from a deep slumber.
When i entered college i valued learning from experience. The pleasure to do things with my own hands gave me immense pleasure. But as the college progressed things changed. The lack of resources on one hand and my own want to give 'it' a break for some time, put my earlier self to sleep. But a bad luck with the MBA entrance exams was the gun shot which broke the sleep.
But i guess it would have been better had i allowed my person to remain asleep. Its waking up to the real world which ain't the world when it slept. When my true person decided to take a break, it was at its peak. One shot and it entered one of the coveted colleges. Another shot and it scored a 90 in boards. It slept satisfied of what it had done assured that the other me would take care of the rest. But i guess my person was wrong. Life wasn't easy in college. Thrown in with a different set of people than those i had became accustomed to over a period of 6-7 years and then asked to build a life around it wasn't easy. After making these adjustments facing the first pangs of love and then being spurned for someone else wasn't easy on poor me. Life twisted and turned sooner than ever experienced before. So i wished my better person to sleep as long as possible, keeping it away from the changed scenario. To prolong the period i even tried getting into an MBA college though there were interludes when the sleeping giant grunted and advised against it. Once it even pleaded that it would kill him if i continue on the chosen path but i ignored him. I thought i knew better than 'it' and am doing the right thing. But as it goes every man has to live upto his own destiny. As it goes the winds of change started to blow. The true me, the man who wanted to be a true engineer not one of the namesakes churned out by nsit, at first started to shift, opening an eye at a time, creating unrest in the other me who by now has become accustomed to the easy going life. After nearly a month of uneasiness with my other self trying all the tricks in the book to put to sleep the sleeping giant, an accord has been reached. After rounds and rounds of negotiation the two of them for the complete me have decided to live peacefully side by side. The worldly wise other me has bought to the table its invaluable experience of seeing life from different angles while the true me has agreed to bring back the vigour, the love for work, the dogged determination which put the complete me in college in the first place. The true me has put in the contract a clause which states that if i really wish to learn now, i have to get in the ring known as world. To be satisfied for the rest of my life, i have to take all the punches on the chin advises my true self. On the other hand the other self has made it mandatory to enjoy the events of life. It has vetoed against going back to the earlier grumpy self and has threatened to kill the true self this time around if its advices are ignored.
I cannot express how it feels to be at peace with oneself. While my friends still grope in the dark with a lucky few getting hold of the candle just now, i am lucky to have seen the light. I know its a tough road, the journey is to be full of surprises and shocks, but i atleast have found peace.