I have made many good friends in my life. But somehow,
nobody has even come close to the bonding I had with this one special friend of
mine – let’s call him John for anonymity’s sake.
He was one of the first friends I made when I shifted to my
new school. Within 2 months of joining that
school, we had become the best of friends.
We were almost inseparable. We were in the same class in
school and most of our time after school was spent together. It was around the
time we had read the story of Damon and Pythias. For our common friends, we
were the living embodiment of the legendary friends.
We used to play all the games together. We used to fight
with people or stop talking to people just because the other person had a fight
with this third person.
We used to share all kinds of thoughts and ideas – in their unedited
form – literally speaking our minds. Without the usual censoring that people do
when speaking in front of other people. We even talked about things that we
were afraid or ashamed of talking about in public.
We used to share our joys and help each other in our pains. Whenever
his parents were worried about his studies or his behavior, they used to ask me
to talk to him and to make him understand - they thought I could most influence
John.
My parents had more trust in him than they had me. They
found him more mature and level headed. Even if he used to ask for permission
for things not permitted for me, he was never denied it. The feeling was the
same when it came to his parents and me.
In many ways, we seemed to be facing similar kinds of
problems in our lives.
He was my go to man for almost any problem. He was also the
guy who felt happier than me when something good happened to me.
Normally guys are not known to talk much with other guys on
the phone. However, we have spent hours talking on the phone even after having
spent the entire day together.
When I called him, often I used to spend more time talking
to his maid and his mom, than I did talking to him. Even our moms chatted a lot
with each other.
He was the one who gave me my first drink because he thought
it was insane that I hadn’t even tasted liquor till then.
We even fell for the same girl in school – Sara for the sake
of the story. In such situations, what you would normally expect is that it
would mean trouble for our friendship. And we did fight a lot, but to convince
the other person to not feel guilty, and instead propose the girl first! That
experience made me realize how important our friendship was to the both of us.
Eventually, when I decided to go ahead and approach the
girl, I was feeling sad on the one hand for the possible heart break of my dear
friend. On the other hand, I was obviously feeling exhilarated.
I never for once thought that I had a chance with the girl.
Although, I was in for a surprise - she accepted!
A week after the event, I and all of my friends went to
another friend’s house to celebrate. As we were about to leave her home, John
accosted Sara and me and told us that he wanted to make a disclosure. He told
her that he had liked her for a long time but now that Sara and I were dating,
he did not want to leave and potential for misunderstanding between us. So he
wanted her to know about his feelings and that he would now try to get over her.
John said that, for him, his friendship with me was very important and he could
not let anything come between me and him.
Both Sara and I were shocked! I had never expected it. But
after I recovered from the initial reaction, I was very proud of my best
friend. My respect for him grew manifold. How many people had the guts to do
such a thing?
But such were his ways. He was the most wonderful person
that I knew then and probably one of the most wonderful people I have ever
known.
To be continued... (One story is too small for me to describe our friendship)