Is it difficult to make new friends as you grow old?

I remember discussing this with a friend of mine.

How many of us are quick at making friends?

And how many of us find it difficult to talk to new people and include them in our lives?

Was it easier to make friends when we were kids or is it easier now? 

A friend as a kid:

When we were kids all we wanted was someone with whom we could go out to play at any time of the day. We needed someone who was capable enough to pull us out of our study hours and sneak out to have some fun.

A friend as a teen:

As we stepped into our teens, we started looking up to friends who stood by us when we needed a shoulder to cry and hear our tantrums. Sometimes, these were the same who were with us in our childhood and sometimes we made new ones.

A friend later and after:

But as we started working and facing the whole new world, our thoughts changed. We started realising that friendship was much more than what we had ever known. We started looking up to those who were happy when we were happy and were sad when we were not in the best of our moods.

We started judging people and were sometimes hurt by those whom we once felt were our closest friends. As kids, we never judged anyone. There was never a preconceived notion about relationships. The one who shared his lunch or pencil box was our best friend. We didn't have a description of how our friend should be.

As we grew older, our expectations from our friends increased. We wanted them to be more than what they were before. And as expectations increased, the ones who understood and stood beside remained and the ones who didn't, left us.

After a certain period in life, we know the kind of people we wish to live with and sometimes do not want any more acquaintances of accomplices in our life. There comes a point of realisation when we find it difficult to trust in the new people who enter our life and hence, we become slow at making new friends.

But, you never know when you may land up meeting a kind friend in your life. So always keep yourself open to new friendships. It may bring with it a lot of answers to your unanswered questions.

Do you agree with me or do you feel otherwise?

 Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

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#MondayMusings

Meant to be Soulmates - A note for my best Friend!!

It was a week after Higher secondary school had begun.I had seen her for the very first time in the stairs of our school right next to the wall where hung the photo of Christ. She was accompanied by another friend of mine. 

"Hey Nitha", I told her and realised who she was. We had studied in the same school 5 years back and I had moved to another city after that as my dad was transferred from Pune. 5 years later I was back to Pune(The city I loved and will always love) and joined a junior college where I met her again. Her face had seemed familiar. I remembered her name too, but there was no other memory of her.

We formed a group of girls who had come from the same school(Of course my 5 year back school) and started sitting together or lunch breaks. Nitha, I and my other friend Steffi (who had introduced me to Nitha) would travel on the same route back home. Slowly, Nitha and I became close friends. She was the free radio for all of us. She had a situational song for every instance. 

We even joined the same tuition classes in our 12th std. She was the first person who trusted and agreed to sit behind me in my two-wheeler when I just had a learning license. I never realised if she was so courageous or it was the trust that she had on me. She was also the first person to share the fall  with me on my two-wheeler. 

Junior college passed by and with both of us not having scored really high marks, landed up getting an admission in an just above average college for our graduation. Initially I had joined another college, but later shifted to the same college as her. I remember my mom asking me, "Did you join this college for Nitha?"

College was fun when we formed another group of ours with two more similar minded, fun-loving and amazing girls, Jocy and Simi. Every secret, every crush, every mischief, every first-first was shared with her. I remember bunking college and landing up in victory theatre to watch the infamous "VIruddh" movie and guess what there were just four of us in the theatre including Nitha and me. :P

College was done and I moved again to another city but never once did I feel away from her. 

Every holiday that I came home, Nitu would put everything aside for me. I was her special soulmate, and she was mine. The only time I saw her cry was when I left Pune for my higher studies. She didn't want me to go. She almost ran as the train began to move. 

She was the person who helped me through the teenage years and is my strongest support system. It's been more than a decade since I first met her at the stairs in my Jr. College. Back then I never knew that after so many years I would be writing something about her and something for her. 

Be it from watching the most boring movie in a theatre to dialing a number to cry my heart out at 12 in the night, it was always her. There was not once when she wasn't there for me. And I know there never will be too. 

She had once asked me, "Chinds, why don't you write something about me on your blog? You write so many things.". As this is her birthday month, I thought why not write something about her and for her. 

They say if a friendship lasts for more than 7 years then it's meant to be for a lifetime. It's so true, the bond I share with her is meant for a lifetime.   

You know me through and through,

You've been there and help me through. 

You understand my silence,

Wait for me to answer with patience. 

An angel in disguise,

You are what I won as a prize. 

Nothing can replace you,

Not even another you.