Fraandship - I

-
"Character is so largely affected by associations that we cannot afford to be indifferent as to who and what our friends are. They write their names in our albums, but they do more, they help make us what we are. Be therefore careful in selecting them; and when wisely selected, never sacrifice them." -  M. Hulburd
      Initially there was a friend, just one. As time passed by, more people came by and eventually a larger group of friends. With the advent of social networking sites (Orkut, Facebook, Twitter), we were able to classify our friends to various categories, best friends, bestest friends, good friends, acquaintances, neighbours, blah blah blah... It also gave rise to a new breed of friends, namely fraands. I wanted to separate post into two distinct parts, new friends and old ones. Part-II of this blog is intended for the various types of friendships that we maintain. Part- I previews internet induced friendships  fraandships.
     (The following paragraph is a modified extract from a movie. But its purely intended because it saves me a lot of time to find something original :) )
     Like every great magic trick, fraanships have three parts. The first part is called "The Pledge." The fraand sends in a request with an innocent statement. "Hi, I'm xyz. I'd like to be fraands with you." Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't.
    The second act is called "The Turn". The fraand takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. He sends you wishes for your uncle's birthday. Remarks on each and every facebook status message, at least with a lol (refer to section 4.3.05 on chat terminology). You might even be lucky enough to get a testimonial on your profile praising your beauty, intelligence and compassion, from a person who has never met you, or probably spoken to you.
     Now you're looking for the essence... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't fall yet. Because you need to wait for your friends to approve. That's why every fraandship has a third act, the hardest part, the part that's called "The Prestige". Sometimes it goes well, everyone ends happy. Otherwise, er... this could be a possibility.
     There's nothing wrong in making a new friend. Just ensure that sure that they have common interests, not just a pretty profile picture and the fraandship request doesn't hit the wrong nerves. To make friendships doesn't take much, but it takes a lot more to keep it in good stead. As another friendship day passes by, I would like to thank my wonderful friends for always being there with me. And to the bunch of people who send me forwards on this day because they have free messaging, "thanks a lot, fraands".

      "And when somebody knows you well, well there's no comfort like that. And when somebody needs you, well there's no drug like that."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An open book

-
Image
     1998. 9th standard. Life wasn't all about History, Chemistry and Maths then. Computers were in the stage of evolution, and cellphones were like UFOs. Someone claimed to have seen them, but no one could swear to it that it existed. Our entertainment were restricted to board games, Monopoly and Scrabble ruled the roost then, kids nowadays call these apps on their funky i-phones. But within the walls of our classroom, a game existed. A game that had caught the imagination of the Indian youth. Cricket was still a religion, and Sachin our God.       The first hour would go on perfectly fine. We would remain fresh and active during the class. The second hour would generally resort to slight murmur of disapproval. In the third hour, it would start. A slight ruffle in the last bench. Rajeev and Unni sat there. I would turn back from the penultimate row and check out. The pitch report had started, it would be the English text book. Good seaming conditions, slightly overcast. The
Read more

Malus domestica...

-
Image
     I hope the title is not misleading enough to describe this post as a testimonial to the wonderful clan of people situated in Southern India (pun intended). So let's get this straight, "The Apple" is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family (Rosaceae) and is a perennial. It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans.      Our long standing relationship with this passionate fruit supposedly starts from the advent of the human race, providing us with a one-way ticket from the garden of Eden to the bowels of Earth. As a result, in the story of Adam and Eve, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man into sin, and sin itself.      If that wasn't bad enough, Sir Isaac Newton decided to blame the forces of gravitation explicably as the reason we couldn't lift off the surface of the earth
Read more

Romancing the language

-
Image
" I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language. Bhairo becomes Byron because their minds are very narrow. In the year 1929 when India was playing Australia at the Melbourne stadium Vijay Hazare and Vijay Merchant were at the crease. Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare. look Vijay Hazare Sir , this is a very prestigious match and we must consider it very prestigiously. We must take this into consideration, the consideration that this is an important match and ultimately this consideration must end in a run. In the year 1979 when Pakistan was playing against India at the Wankhede stadium Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari were at the crease and they took the same consideration. Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari, look Wasim Bari, we must consider this consideration and considering that this is an important match we must put this consideration in
Read more