Fraandship - I

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"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."

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