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Friends




ESTRAGON: Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!
VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?
ESTRAGON: You let me go.
[Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot]

Whenever I think of friendship the above dialogue rushes to my mind.  Friendship is an abiding presence primarily.  Not physical presence.  It’s an understanding that transcends physicality (don’t touch), emotionality (don’t question), and verbality (don’t speak).

There was a time, brief but excruciatingly protracted, when Joe, Nick and Larry were my friends.  They ended up making me lose faith in humanity itself. 

Can't locate the source: from the vast ocean of Internet
Joe thought that I had an eye on his wife. Then he thought that my one eye was always on someone’s wife.  So, like a good friend, he reminded me of the tenth commandment.  “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife,” he quoted.  I told him he was wrong.  Friends can disagree, after all.  I quoted the tenth commandment as it appears in the Bible: ““You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

Like a good friend, I drew his attention to the order: house, wife, male servant, female servant, ox, donkey, anything.  The commandment was a blatant display of the Jewish priorities.  The wife was just another animal or thing in that list.  I was being a good friend pointing out to him the relativity of all truths including the revealed ones in the sacred scriptures.  The “blasphemer” in me rattled his religious sensibilities.  Like a good friend, he took it upon himself to proselytise me, to bring religion into my fallen soul. 

Nick thought I was just an immature twerp who was hilarious fun to be with.  He saw himself as the heroic acrobat in a riveting circus in which I was the clown in motley.  He found an exquisite delight in spanking my bum with a splintered plank which produced an explosive sound that regaled the audience. 

Larry was the typical missionary whose penetrating eye was perpetually stuck on the degraded sinner in me.  By virtue of his social status which let him hobnob with people who matter in the society, he got a whole lot of people to work towards my spiritual redemption.  They cut off my water supply, electricity supply and whatever else they could cut off including my self-esteem.  I understood the value of friends or at least that of the society.  Unable to put my understanding to practical use, I quit.  Never turned back ever since.

Books became my best friends.  If there were a god, he (I choose that masculine pronoun for sheer convenience; I know that a penis would be of as little use to god as would a vagina be unless our gods are those entertaining creatures in our ancient myths) would be the ideal friend.  Seeing everything, he would be in a position to understand everything.  Friendship is that understanding.  Such understanding unfolds the universe within ourselves.  Even as Einstein’s insights unfolded some of the mysteries of the cosmos.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 181: #friendship


PPS. Not all people are Joe, Nick and Larry.  There are a few who strive to rise to the divinity that makes a human being a companion.  May their tribe increase! Let me also dedicate this post to all my friends including Joe, Nick and Larry.

Comments

  1. Pranju chakrapaniAugust 5, 2017 at 12:45 AM

    I agree with you. I was smiling a lot while reading this post. Of late, after joining a new work place, I have been continuously writing about friendship and societal artwork that I have no sense of understanding.

    The dialogue in the first paragraph is so apt that it made my heart be in peace for knowing that minds of great beings also had the same opinion on friendship.

    It was on the lines of that opinion that I thought of giving you a small present as a token for being a part of never letting me go from your writings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 5, 2017 at 10:14 AM

      Beckett's dialogue is something that remained etched in my memory from the time I studied the play for MA. I'm acutely conscious of the absurdity of my idealistic demands from a friend. That's one reason why I desist from making friends. The other reasons are obvious from the post.

      I'm grateful for your gift though I have this nagging tendency to analyse even such a gesture from a friend. Your clarification comes in handy.

      Delete
  2. SangietaaAugust 5, 2017 at 9:19 AM

    Very apt. If we realised that God is our friend then we would be in peace with ourselves knowing that one person who accepts us and willing to listen to us unconditionally

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 5, 2017 at 10:15 AM

      Unconditional acceptance comes from total understanding which only a god or godlike person can do. Glad to see you here.

      Delete
  3. CifarAugust 5, 2017 at 5:42 PM

    true friendship is understanding

    ReplyDelete
  4. Goutami NewsAugust 5, 2017 at 11:28 PM

    Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. sunaina sharmaAugust 9, 2017 at 6:27 AM

    You started off with my favorite text... There are more Joes, Nicks and Harrys in this world unfortunately than those who can be true friends.

    ReplyDelete

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