“O my friends, there are no friends.”

A friend is a person capable of loving irrespective of whether he is being loved or not. Friendship can
exist between the same sex: man-man, woman-woman, or opposite sex: man-woman. It transcends age
and could subsist between even an old man and a small boy. Human beings also establish friendships
with their pet animals such as cats, dogs, horses, doves and parrots. Friendship can also be felt in
familial relationships between father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife, brother and sister,
elder brother and younger brother. Yet, more than friendship, love is the binding force in familial
relationships. In a deeper sense, love is below friendship because it is an above/below relation, one of
hierarchy and condition. It is implied, then, that friendship is freedom plus equality. It involves choice
and volition. The concept of friendship needs exploration because often a man is known by the company
he keeps; knowing the company helps one to know oneself and develop his personality to the fullest.
Each of our friends mirrors a rejected or acknowledged trait in us. They happen to be our friends
because it is ourselves in different forms, and a unified vision of them constitutes to the sameness of our
identity.
Generally, friendship exists for three reasons: a) virtue b) usefulness c) pleasure. When virtue is the
reason, friendship exists for the sake of friendship; where both like each other and cherish each other for
some creditable values in the other’s personality. You wish to be the friend of that person for the sheer
personality that he/she has. It has a magic in itself. It attracts you. And it is mutual. You know that
you would even die to swear your friendship for that person. But you also know that the other would
make you live than die for him/her. It is somewhat platonic in concept inasmuch as the other may not be/
need not be all that intelligent and good looking, useful or capable of giving pleasure.
A friendship of the second kind is formed for the utilitarian value of it. How useful so and so is to me?
What can I benefit from him? Can I use his car? Will he use his reputation and influence to fetch me a
good job? Will he lend me money in need? Thus a person may ask and maintains relationship for
practical, professional, and political reasons. I remember the friendship I made with two others on a
train journey from Mumbai to Chennai. It was extremely useful for killing time during the journey.
Further, all of us had to go to the bus-stand to continue our onward travel. Therefore we took an autorickshaw
till the bus-stand and shared the money. But then, once we boarded our buses to our
destinations, we were looking forward to meet our people at the hometown. That is the quality of this....