Friends?!

Today was the last day of my German language class.Despite it being the last day Meggi was trying to cajole us into revising the the lessons of our Tangram German book. I was however madly clicking photos and surreptitiously video taping Meggi while she animatedly discussed the grammatical points.Now Grammar is vital but its the most boring part of learning a language.With German having a gender for all the nouns,it is indeed a daunting task if your grammar is weak.On any other day I would have been my attentive self taking notes but not today.I had different things running in my mind..

All these people in my class are so lovable and I knew that I might never see them again.Sixty year old Maria ,oldest student of our class was unusually quiet today.Despite having moved to Germany she remains a Brazilian at heart. She loves showing us photos of her fruit farms and family in Brazil and talking about them in Spanish.Though I can't understand Spanish I listen to her nonetheless!
Then there's Jovi a sweet eighteen year old exchange student from Equador.Like me she too was busy with her camera.Jovi,an aspiring architect,is one of the boldest girls I have met and her artwork has inspired me to be more creative.As a parting gift she gave me a pair of beautiful silver earrings ,something I will always cherish.

Meggi having sensed the mood of the class declared an early break time.Soon we were all exchanging email addresses and sampling Maria's fruit cake.Its funny how people
become warmer when they realize it may be the last time they will be meeting someone!As I promised Carla,Aisha and the the others to keep in touch via Email,I realised that these six months of classes had fostered a bond of friendship.Was it because we all were 'foreigners'in a strange country?Was it because we had a common goal of learning a language? seeing each other everyday and had found it comforting?Or was it perhaps just a human emotion ,a need for companionship?Most importantly were we really going to be in touch with each other when the common denominators were removed!Only time will tell..

Im sure we all have made friends at different stages of life.Eventually perspectives and priorities change.The relevance of the friendship becomes vague.With time we lose touch and come to a stage where we are unable to relate with them anymore.Much as we might like to revive such a friendship,sadly it never feels quite the same.{when the desire isn't mutual}So it is perhaps wise to be grateful for the happy moments and emotions you shared ,make peace with the past and move on;for we live in an age where time is money and money is life and no one has time to spare..Its not a place for fools like me who consider friends as 'the extended family you get to choose'..

Childhood friendships are different.To this day I treasure them and try my best to keep in touch.The friends we make during childhood are forever special because they were made at an age of innocence.When we expected nothing from our friends..when we shared the joy of freedom ..shared our silly secrets..and trusted without a second thought.When we took for granted that friends would be elated with our success and luck as if their own.That they would solve our problems without a complaint. Friends who never let you feel lonely..Perhaps the blissful memories of the carefree days keeps us going back to our childhood friends.
But today ..this very day,how many of us can confide our worst fears with our friends..how many of us have friends who celebrate our success as if their own.How many of us have friends we can consider as 'family'?Have we lost our ability to trust or is it that we view friendship as an over rated emotion?Have we become so self sufficient that we can do without them?Do we really have friends or are the people in our Orkut friends list or Face book account there just to show that you are 'popular'?To satiate our ego perhaps or to fill a lacuna in life?No..?Why is it then that some of us feel so lonely and lost despite having hundreds of 'friends'?why are we so impoverished?
Perhaps we have answers we rather not be vocal about..perhaps the relationship of friends has gotten so diluted it's become rhetoric and soon will be obsolete.Perhaps we have forgotten to be human..