Happy Friendship Day

 Dear Reader

Happy Friendship Day💛💛 Yellow is for friendship you see😁

         I got two Friendship Day messages today-- the first thing in the morning. One from a young learner and another one from a sophomore--both very dear to me. I was quite excited and very happy. 

    I began to wonder at this excitement. I swear by antagonism to any 'day'--mother/ father/ brother/sister/ engineer/doctors/ cousins, including teachers day--irrespective of my sincere respect to Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher, academician, the first Vice president of India and the second President of India.

   My antagonism to celebrating the 'days' is rooted in two reasons--one, the 'traditional' wisdom of relationships--every relationship is celebrated each day. This once-in-a-year one-day celebration is tokenism and tokenism is meaningless at the least. Secondly, these days are 'invented' to promote the sales of greeting cards--no less, no more. Well, it may be so but not limited to that, as many of my friends argue with me. 

    Today's excitement got me thinking about this self-contradiction. Could Friendship Day also be a tokenism promoted by Hallmark Greeting Cards or is it more rooted in culture, literature and lores? Not really. I believe, the Bible places the utmost importance on friendship:

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" Mathew 7;7

"Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13-15

I remembered some fascinating friendships from the two epics:

        Rama and Hanuman, Hanuman and Jambavanta, Radha and Krishna, Krishna and Sudhama, Krishna and Arjuna, Duryodhana and Karna, Draupadi and Krishna, Draupadi and Subhadra, Kunti and Gandhari. . . the list is endless. Then there are 'demonic' friendships, for example, Sunda-Upasanda, and Ravana-Maricha.  But, one common feature of the tale of friendships is the centrality of unconditional love. 

      Ramayana presents a beautiful bond between the animal world and humans. Jatayu gives up his life protecting Sitadevi as Ravana abducts her; Hanuman's divine aspirations end in his eternal friendship with Rama; and of course, who can forget the squirrels' help in building the bridge and the resulting friendship with Rama! 

     Mahabharata depicts friendships in different hues, built across caste, gender and class. Sudhama, poor as he was, meeting Krishna to ask him to help, barely gathers the heart to ask. As he returns home, he sees that his family is blessed with wealth by his friend. Draupadi unhesitantly tears her silk saree to use it as a bandaid as Krishna hurts his hands. And when Dushyasana tries to disrobe her, she is blessed with an endless saree that covers her. Who can not admire, feel sad and wonder at the friendship between Karna and Duryodhana!? 

      Here is one instance taken from a Tamil folktale about their friendship. It is said that Duryodhana asks Karna to take care of Bhanumati, his wife, as he is engrossed in urgent work. As a pastime, they start a game of dice. A little later, Duryodhana enters the hall to find his friend and wife playing the game of dice. As Bhanumati stands up to welcome her husband back, Karna thinks she is going away as she is losing the game. As he tries to make her sit, her pearl jewellery breaks and pearls are scattered all over the place. Both realise the indelicacy of the situation; but, Duryodhana picks up the pearl, gives it to Bhanumati and asks them to finish the game. Wonderous are the many colours of friendship . . . 

                                       To be continued. . . 

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