Truemors
::By Robert Lalmalsawm:: (A work of Fiction based on experience)
Everyday is a day to make friends and August 5 is observed as a special day to celebrate that friendship. Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honour of friends began in US in 1935. Today, Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries including India. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them.
Exchange of Friendship Day gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion. On this Day, all ye book and dog lovers who have not had the chance to make new friends or keep up with old friends, it’s time you to skip your dog walk or drop your copy of the Harry Potters. Yes, you may think that either dogs and books are the best friends you can have but remember it is always incomplete without the ‘human touch’. I’ll tell you why.
I have been ‘friends’ to both dogs and books. I had shared with my dog my biscuits and morsels of food at the kitchen. We would go to parks on weekends and Sundays for flirting. I had seen him falling in love and he was a witness of me going gaga over the same. He would leap into my bed every morning to ascertain whether my alarm clock perform its assigned task. We also had misunderstandings and bad days.
However, by the end of the day, we knew reconciliation was always a better option than going to sleep with a heavy heart. Once we settled our differences we would feel alive again and we looked ahead to start a brand new day together.
However, my dog died when he was only 3 years old. I was depressed. I loiter alone along the lonely lanes and parks we had frequented. The worst thing was that I no longer have the courage and enthusiasm to take in another dog. I feared, I would not be able to bear another sorrowful event of losing another ‘dog friend’!
One day, sitting in a park, I overheard an old man telling his young grandson: Boy, you know what, books are the best friend you can have, they never betray you... and lastly they never leave you alone lonely.
Believing the old man, I translated his words into practice. I started collecting books from friends and neighbours. Besides, I also bought some pirated books sold on the streets! Within three months I was in the company of some 50 ‘book friends’. Some of them lay on my table, some sleeps inside the bookshelf waiting to be woken up, some under my pillow while others lay on the kitchen shelves!
Books and books were all I could think of. My brother thought I was getting paranoid. My mother somehow managed to tolerate my ‘book friends’ laying all around the house. My father suggests I get a new dog. My sisters wants me to bring them Mills& Boons and not the “boring literatures”.
As time passes I began to realise that my ‘book friends’ were becoming selfish. They always want me to read into their ‘mind’ or dust them clean. I began to have second thought on what the old man had said. Was he just another depressed man like me, at that time, who also had just lost his dog? As my weary mind starts churning out the possible answers to the vexed question on ‘best friends’ it becomes more obvious to me that the old man had said those ‘wise words’ simply to lighten up his heavy heart.
The more I get closer to my ‘book friends’, the less time I spent with my family and human friends. Conversation with them becomes as rare as a dodo. I began to feel the emptiness in me. I feel cold in my squared room with all my ‘book friends’. They shared me their jokes, I forgot to laugh. I read their thrilling stories, but no longer do I get excited.
Had it not been for the saviour word— introspection— I would have blackout. As my mind races back, images of support and encouragement by family members and human friends appeared before my, rather dull, now gleaming eyes. They were the one who had stood by me at all time. Though I love my ‘book friends’, I finally decided that I have had enough time with them. Now that my mind and senses are clear, I can see and feel that dogs and books can only be man’s ‘part-time friends’ and not a ‘man’s best friend’. They can never replace human beings. So, get out there and celebrate friendship.
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