friendship day Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Friends are the family we choose. Invariably, they hold a significant place in our lives. This special relationship begins when two people share their happiness and sorrows with each other, and end up accompanying each other through life’s milestones.

We have grown up with our school friends, but there’s something special about the one’s you meet in college.The friends you make in college are completely different from other friend you have made in your entire life. Unlike your high school friends, you actually chose these bonds based on common interests, not simply because you grew up with them. Friendship becomes a vital part of life during college because not only are we finding out who we ultimately are, but we’re also discovering who’s going to be with us on the rest of our life’s journey. That guy you meet on the first day of orientation or that girl you meet in the canteen on you college fest may end up becoming that friend who you’d call ten years after graduation when your kids tell you stories about their friends.

Making lifelong friends in college allows you to share any of life’s milestones with your friends: getting your first internship or landing your first job. Not only do they see you grow from a first-year college student to a seasoned college graduate, they also live all your life-defining moments with you.

College friends are the ones who have seen you at your absolute worst and cheered you at your best, be it any society audition or a placement interview. There are no boundaries in your friendship; no obligations, no restrictions, just unalderated, at times brutal and much needed honesty. It’s become completely normal for you and your friend to share your bed and each other’s wardrobe. From hating the same professors to having a crush on the girl with red hair, this friendship will be a friendship for a lifetime. They are the only people with whom you can enjoy even when you are not doing anything special; even laying on the bed, uttering the randomest of thoughts to each other and pondering on them seems like bliss.
As the years in college progress, there will be a time when you will experience the feeling of ‘home’ with your friends. Feeding each other while preparing for semester exams, holding each other’s hands while crossing the road, or simply understanding each other’s past and problems – these friends will make sure you never feel alone. From pushing through the bad days and laughing through the good ones, to surviving the burden of growing up, you become each other’s survival kits in college and will have interesting and epic stories to tell your kids, thanks to college friendships.

They’ll stand like a shadow, a shield, and will try to protect, and teach you how to learn from every pit you fall in. From planning trips to Ladakh, Goa, Kasol, and Manali, to critically dissecting the new TV series, college walls have seen some of the purest bonds emerging.

In all seriousness, we all extremely blessed to have friends which help us through the most critical and difficult phase of our lives, where we’re still getting to paint our dreams with the colours of reality. The picture isn’t always pretty, but at least there is good company to laugh at the misery.

Let your gang know, “Tere jaisa yaar kahaan,kaahan aisa yaarana“, and cherish the beautiful bond you guys share!

Anoushka Sharma
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When I say Friendship Day, the images that come into our minds are of the various colourful threads known as friendship bands, which were exchanged between friends when we were in school or the posters outside every Archies outlet reminding us, till date, to wish our loved ones by buying one commodity or another from the store to show our love.

Now, when you’re out of school, and the idea of friendship bands seems too corny, you willingly forget whatever you read in Marxism about the capitalistic society and the reification of objects and you do exactly what the society expects out of you. You go into an Archies or a Hallmark branch, and buy an object- a card or a gift which would then become a substitute to show your affection. In a fast paced life, when we have little to no time to reflect upon things, spending a mere hundred rupees to get the work done seems like the best option.

I am not implying that cards or gifts are a bad choice and cannot hold the sentimental value you wish for them to have. They surely can, but till the time both the people involved in the exchange focus just on the sentimental value and the thought behind the action and not the brand name or price tag that comes along with it. Have you ever imagined giving someone a gift which is not branded? Can you give someone a card which does not have a mark of a known brand like an Archies or a Hallmark?

Slowly and steadily, without us realising, we’re giving into the ‘commodity culture’ of our times. Rather than making handmade cards, having lunch with a friend or indulging in a proper conversation, we are using objects to show our warmth and love. The gifts might be further given to someone else and the greeting cards may go into the dustbins after a month or so, but time, which is the best gift you can give to your friends is still irreplaceable yet rare.

So, this year, take a break from the usual Friendship Day routine and try to understand your friends. After all, Chandler too wanted a VCR or a set of golf clubs, but he soon, understood the true emotions behind Joey’s gift and now we know them as the ‘Bracelet buddies’!
(I don’t think Chandler will be too happy knowing the name stuck around, though!)

Nishita Agarwal
[email protected]

Image credits (For the Bracelet buddies picture): https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/
Feature Image Credits: http://assets-cdn.ekantipur.com/images/

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