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Friends


There’s something in me that resists making friends.  Except for a brief period of my youth, I kept away from people as much as possible.  That brief period itself was the cause.  Those whom I considered friends were mocking me at my back.  When I learnt that I chose solitude except at the professional level. 

If people found me funny enough to have hearty laughs at my cost, there must be something wrong with me.  That’s why I quit socialising.  So it’s not the others I’m blaming; it’s myself.  However, I’m not wallowing in self-pity.  It’s just that I learnt that I wasn’t meant for being with people.  So I chose books as my friends. 

But there are a few individuals whom I can call friends with whom I maintain meaningful contact.  As meaningful as the relationship between Piglet and Winnie the Pooh:
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.” 




Comments

  1. Sir, there is nothing wrong with you. Those people are truly great manipulators. That's just what they do. Only because​, they can't handle what's right about you.

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    Replies
    1. Failing to learn the ways of the world is the most serious failure.

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  2. I agree. I do feel like I am at loss and do want to be like others. But knowing that someone else is doing just fine being in his own skin gives me a relief.

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    Replies
    1. Probably it's the same reason why I took a liking to you ☺

      Delete
  3. Your insight into the social aspects, knowledge level on the topics you discuss, control over the grammatical English, keen interest to bring out the oft sidelined issues and boldness in calling a spade a spade are clearly noticeable as one goes thru' your Posts.. All these qualities together are really rare in a Blogger!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm indeed glad to hear that, sir, especially from you. Thanks a lot.

      Delete
  4. Well, Sir, I'd like to differ with you. Making someone laugh is quite a difficult task. I always fail in doing so. In my opinion, you are a blessed one. Also, you didn't quit socialising because, as I see, you're using the medium of blogging to socialise with us.

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    Replies
    1. The virtual society is quite different from the real one. Thanks for letting me know that I belong there fairly well. And the laugh part - my fb profile describes me as 'The joker in the pack'. ☺

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  5. Very sweet story of Piglet and Pooh.

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  6. Your blogs reveal that your friends circle is quite large. It will expand further when you consider those who only read your blogs but seldom respond!

    ‘Friends’ ‘meaningful contact’ are ambiguous words. But I am sure you have a larger group of admirers and followers than you may be aware of or wish to admit

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    Replies
    1. I really didn't mean the friends in social networks or readers of my blogs. Still glad this post elicited a comment from you.

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  7. I feel sorry for those people who failed to see the gem in you. Friend or no friend, I really admire you always :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Amit. Maybe I wasn't a very likeable person as a young man. Youth and folly go hand in hand as they say. :)

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  8. All are strangers until you meet them. All are friends until you know them.

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