Needy Friends

It was 12-30 A.M. Just the day before Deepavali. I was working on an important presentation that I had to deliver at 9 A.M. While I was clicking through it, slide after slide, the phone just rang. It was Piglet. Piglet was my friend since college. We had known each other for 12 years now. Our lives had changed, our destinies had changed, but we remained good friends. We hadn't spoken to each other for a long time and since he was calling at an odd hour, I knew there was something terribly wrong.

I picked up the phone and piglet broke down instantaneously. He had lost his job. I simply didn’t know how to react. I was patiently listening to his story while scanning through the slides on the other hand. Dealing with two important tasks at the same time is like dealing with twins. You need to give both of them the same amount of attention, so that neither feels deprived and you feel satisfied. Six years into investment banking had taught me how to juggle two things at the same time. And then out of the blue, I told him not to worry and assured him of a job in my firm just to make him feel better. As I finished speaking a few soothing words, I got a call from my girl friend. Since I was speaking with Piglet, her call was waiting.

She had been away for a while since her father was ill. We hadn't spoken in weeks. Her father had been diagnosed with leukaemia 3 months back and has been battling for life ever since. I told my friend I'd get back to him and picked up her call instantaneously. She broke down very badly. Her father was no more. When someone so close faces a huge loss it is best to let them pour out their emotions first. Never try knocking sense into an emotional person's head. Sense and emotion never go hand in hand. This was another lesson that I had learnt from the six years as an investment banker. I listened patiently and told her she needed rest and asked her to take care of her mother. Just as I finished telling her this, my phone ran out of charge.

I had spoken for three and a half hours continuously. The battery was bound to croak it. I quickly rummaged through my room looking out for the mobile charger. It was nowhere to be found. I then recalled that I had left it in my bay. I had no option but to get back to both of them in the morning. I had left my phone on charge during the presentation. After I returned from the presentation I switched on my mobile to see twenty five unread messages. Fifteen were from my girl and the rest were from Piglet. Half the messages read 'U there?' One of the messages was “ A friend in need is a friend indeed.”

I called them up and had to spend an hour convincing them about my situation the previous night. I was accused of never being there when needed. My girl friend accused me of giving more importance to my friend while Piglet accused me of giving undue importance to my girl friend, and that I had forgotten what friendship meant.

While driving back home, I recalled an incident that happened 28 years back. It was the third day at school. I had made friends with two boys. I preferred boys over girls, because they played with cars and not Barbie dolls. One of them was named Swaminathan and the other boy was Toni. I declared that Toni would be my best friend because he was generous enough to give me 3 Parle poppins on the very second day of school. Swaminathan, Toni and I would always be seen together.

One day after school, while we were eagerly waiting with water bottles hanging around our necks and handkerchiefs pinned to our pockets, for our rickshaws and vans to drop us back home, Swaminathan's mother came to pick him up. She saw the three of us standing together and asked Swaminathan "who is your best friend?" Swaminathan pointed to me and said,"He is my best friend and Toni is his best friend". His mother smiled and enquired “So who is Toni's best friend?" Swaminathan said "He is our best friend."

We were best friends. We never knew what friendship meant.