Saluting the 'Spirit of Friendship'

I cannot stop starting this post, with these lines from the song by KK:

"Yaaron dosti badi hi haseen hai,
Yeh na ho to kya phir
Bolo yeh zindgi hai..."

Truly, the lines above convey the emotions and thoughts, which I know, everyone of us would be sharing in common.

These speak about one of the most beautiful N powerful relationship that God created -
'Friendship', without which what would our lives have been - well to me, without Friendship N
such dear friends, there wouldn't have been a bigger VOID than my Life.

We’ve collected many 'flowery petals' - our friends - right from our school days, to our college years, to the corporate life, n would be collecting many more of such beautiful petals in the future too - who were and are very dear to us. I take this opportunity to remember all my best friends out there, and express my feelings as to how much they mean to me!!

Turning the papers of this book called 'mY LiFE' back......into nostalgia.....Remember those school days...when all of us would've made our first friends for life.

• As kids - Those running around the pillars of the school during the lunch time, those sharing and gifting of the favourite pen/pecil/eraser to each other, those selfless feelings of experiencing pain when our friend got hurt, those sharing of fairy tale stories with each other.
• As Teens - Those days of sports and fun, those moments of cheering each other in races and competitions during the annual sports meet events, those days of playing cricket on roof tops(terrace) of our homes, those days of night studies preparing for exams, those days of celebrating bithdays - going to friends' homes, playing games, enjoying cakes & special sweets made, and the partying @ home, those days of playing badminton/volleyball/basketball in the playground after school hours, and those days of walking back home in groups after school got over (What a journey it would be with fun on the run).

Then came the first phase of separation , which brought with it an excruciating pain - it was the time we'd to part ways (only physically - as we do are in touch with our best buddies even today...hai na??) with most of our friends; life bringing up different paths to tread along for everyone, on our way to our Future......some on course to become Engineers, some Doctors, some taking up Arts N sciences....

Then came the unforgettable years of college......which brought with them many more of those beautiful petals for us to collect....

• Those days of getting up early in the morning by 5AM to get ready for college bus, those days of group studies n seminars, those days of 'sharing' the might of boring endless lectures, those days of semester exams when we read a complete unit [n sometimes a whole book :)] by means of peer lecture in the college bus journey, those days of representing college in
  inter-collegiate events...be it Sports(cricket, badminton, volleyball etc), or be it culturals(dance, drama, music, quiz, dumb-chrades), or be it curriculars(paper presentations etc), those days of preparing for CAT, GMAT sitting in the last benches, avoiding the boring lectures....the team effort was evident and strongly radiated in all our activities and efforts :)

Then the second phase of separation arrrived.....A strong breeze again scatters many of the petals in our hands in various directions.....and we move on, along the paths scripted for us...taking those sweet n fun filled memories along with us, which we would cherish through out our lives.....however, we are lucky to have the company of some of the petals with us as we step in to a new dawn...a new phase of our lives - our professional careers.

This phase starts off on a high, as we are now self-dependent (Hum apne pairon pe jo khade hotey hain..)....once again ready to gather a set of new petals - petals which've been breezed along from various parts of the country, after sharing a similar journey as ours...and now with us sharing, -

• These days of living an independent life - away from home, @ our work location, these days of projects..tasks..deadlines, these days of working day-in and day-out for 15+ hours during development phase of the project, these days of gulping down more tea and coffee than water, these days of talking more on ISD calls, than on local or STD calls - reason being project
  realted calls to Onsite coordinators, these days of having fun @ work enjoying a day out for the cultural fest of our unit in the organization....

But the phase of separation does agonize us here too....Its the time of our project delivery (a project for which we've dedicated our heart, mind n soul for about 9~10 months) after which is the time for the team to split and make a foray in to new assignments...and now all those new vibrant petals (buddies) which you'd have gathered for your life are also separating from you..some might continue to work with the same organization and some may not, and the physical separation of working for different assignments from different work locations, thus instills the feeling of longing in us....

So itz the time now to say Bbye 2 many of my these dear friends, working with whom for such a long time was a gr8 pleasure n fun!!

I would only say (Bas yahi kehna chahunga).....

"Chalte Chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna,
Kabhi alwidaa naa kehna, kabhi alwidaa naa kehna..."

To all you people out there who have collected these petals and who are the petals for the friends around you......

"Yaaron dosti badi hi haseen hai
Yeh na ho to kya phir
Bolo yeh zindgi hai
Koi to ho raajdaar
Be garaz tera ho yaar
Koi to ho raajdaar...."

MS signing off.......Saluting the 'Spirit of Friendship'....