Salut, mes amis!

I usually am very cautious, even shy about expressing my feelings, especially when they concern other people. It isn’t because I tend to disparage people, or run them down. On the contrary, I nowadays somehow always try to find something to appreciate in every person. I say this, not because I wish to be praised, but because this nature of mine is in some way because of the excellent friends I have had the honour of being associated with.

To quote Yeats, ‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.’ And I am not being over-sentimental here. For me, friendship is a very dear, a very treasured, a very sacred relationship, one to be guarded against all harm at all costs. Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. No love, no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever. True wealth cannot be found in your bank account. It can only be found in those you call friend, those with whom you share your deepest feelings, and those who accept you for who you really are. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

For the last two blogs, I have been very sentimental, very emotional. It is a departure, a very marked departure from my usual expressions, and one that I am enjoying. This may just be the last one in this new genre, so I wanted this to be special. So, I am taking this opportunity to thank all my friends, who stood by me through thick and thin, who criticised me when I was wrong, who applauded me when I am jubilant, who wiped my tears and supported me when I was grieving, who laughed at my inane jokes and didn’t beat me up in frustration. I may not be able to name all of them, but that speaks for my good luck, for in the words of Henry Brook Adams, ‘One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.’.
So, thank you, Purnima, Winny, Subu, Satish, Pudi, Rajesh, Rohan, Nitya, Savita, Roopali, Remya, Maya, Murthy, Vinay, Neeraj, Aditya and Aabha, for tolerating my eccentricity, my childishness, my insensitivities, my rudeness, my brashness. Thanks for showing me the mirror when I stood in the wrong, when I was misguided by my senses, when I was getting my priorities wrong. Thanks for helping me grow up and outlive my fears, my apprehensions, and my misconceptions.

To conclude, I quote Winnie the Pooh and say this to all my friends that If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.