Friendship - The Way I Want IT

Every year on the first Sunday of August, we celebrate "Friendship Day". This day is marked by friendship posts on Facebook, Twitter, nice picture messages sent across WhatsApp and some awesome quotations sent across the network as SMS. People tie friendship bands on their wrists and a flurry of selfies appear in  Facebook news feeds.
As an introvert living in solitude, I see this day in a different way. May be my way of looking things is a "Perfectionist and Idealist" way, but that's just how I want it. Bluntly speaking I don't believe in Friendship Day. The reason being, each day spent with a friend is a celebration in itself. In other words, I don't need a specific day in the calendar to celebrate with a friend. Rather, I believe in making each moment of that friendship count. On this pious day, I pay my respects to the unsung hero and mythological character of Mahabharat - Karna. For me, the definition of the word "Friendship" is the immortal bond between this unsung hero and the villian of the epic Duryodhana.
For the sake of simplicity, I am removing all the divine and magical elements of Mahabharat and presenting the facts in the crudest possible way. This character Karna was an illegitimate child and was abandoned by his own mother. He was adopted by a person who belonged to the lower strata of the society. He had natural inclination towards bows & arrows and was passionate about archery. But unfortunately, at every step of his childhood he got discouragement in the form of "Log Kya Kahenge !!!". As a rebellious teenager, he decided to follow his passions anyway. He lied about his true identity to his teacher and learnt the art of archery. When the time came for displaying his skills, he was publicly ridiculed. Even the finest gentlemen of the time preferred to remain silent as they believed in adjusting with the existing social norms rather than changing it. This was more or less like "Kapoor Saab Kya Kahenge !!!" syndrome. At this crucial moment, the main antagonistic of the epic, Duryodhana respected his merit and offered him the throne of Anga province. That was the point when Karna got emotionally tied to Duryodhana. Throughout the epic, Karna was more like a brother to Duryodhana. There has been certain instances which depict the beauty and perfection of this relationship. For instance once Karna and Duryodhana's wife Bhanumati were playing dice. When Bhanumati realized that she was going to lose the game, she resigned and was about to get up. Karna held her by his hands. The grip of the fearsome warrior was so tight that in the process, the lady's beads fell down and got scrambled all over the floor. It was at this embarrassing moment, when Duryodhana entered the chamber. Karna was ashamed of his conduct and was unable to look into the eyes of his best friend. But rather than doubting his friend's intentions and wife's conduct, Duryodhana just offered to collect the beads. This absolute faith is almost extinct in today's world. Even if it does, then it is probably in the case of a relation between a human and a pet dog.
Later on in the epic, Karna is revealed about his true origins. He realizes that he is the elder brother of the very people he is going to fight in the war. He also realizes that he is the general of an army that is going to lose the war and his impending death in the process. Yet he chose to remain with his friend and fight his own biological brothers. On the 13th day of the war, he broke all the rules of war and warrior code of conduct, to cowardly disarm and murder his own 16 year old nephew Abhimanyu. He did it just for the sake of his friend. A day later, he used one of his most destructive weapons on his another powerful nephew, Ghatotkacha, as his friend Duryodhana's life was in danger. 4 days later, totally disarmed and helpless, he was killed in the war by his younger brother Arjuna. When Duryodhana knew about the death of his best friend along with his true identity, he lost all forms of interest in the throne of Hastinapur, which motivated him to wage war against his cousins in the first place. The bond between Duryodhana and Karna got immortalized when the former did not allow the latter's biological brothers to cremate their elder brother's body and himself lighted the funeral pyre.
Unfortunately, in today's world this sort of idealism does not exist. We can only see glimpses of it in movies like Sholay where a dying Jay says to Veeru - "Yaar... Koi afsos nai hai mujhe... Jeeyo toh Dost ke Saath... Maro toh Dost ke Saamne...". As I watch and cherish these ideal bonds of friendship, I realize that in my personal life, I may end up like an emotionally lonely Karna who got all the respect after he was dead. But that's The Way I Want IT.

"Akele Hai To Kyaa Gam Hai
Chaahe To Humaare Bas Mein Kyaa Nahee
Bas Yek Zaraa Saath Ho Teraa..."