FRIENDSHIP HAS NO LIMITS

“You are not my friend any more! You had hurt me a lot!” said a 10 year old cute girl looking through her hut’s one and only one window at the heavy rain fall out side, on a fine gray colored evening with full of cold breezes.

Her father, a farmer, an optimist, a theist, sat at the entrance of the hut looking at the heavy rain in fear and praying to god, “Oh! God I am about to loose the entire crop that I have planted this season. I can’t feed my wife and my two daughters any more if I lose it.  Please save me God! Please save me!”

Half an hour passed; fierce rain didn’t appear to ebb away; Father’s eyes began to be filled with tears.

One and half hour passed since it started.

Some where far from behind his hut, a sound heard, “Flood gates broken… Save your crops… Save your crops!!!”

Father ran like a dreadful cat towards the person shouting in the heavy rain behind his hut.

They went to the fields only to see that the entire cropped area flooded with water. Plants submerged. Entire field inundated. Father was shocked and fell down there unconsciously.

Villagers brought him back to home and made him sit in front of a fire; slowly he recovered and started crying, “I have lost everything. My entire investment on the fields was wasted. My prayers to you, God, went in vain. Who will protect my family now? Oh! God, why are you so merciless on me?”

Little girl, watching all this said again, looking through the window, “You are not my friend any more! You had hurt me a lot!”

Late in the night she went to her mother, relaxed her head on mother’s shoulder, weeping and asked, “Mummy, rain is my friend. I love rain. I’d like to dance in rain. Rain also likes me. But, Mummy, why did rain hurt me and father a lot. I got cold and fever for dancing in rain out of love. Isn’t rain my friend? Why did it cause cold to me?”

Then mother said, “My girl, listen, rain is not your friend. Your friend is cloud. When cloud comes, you feel happy. It sends rain for you. You enjoy dancing in that rain. Cloud is the one who is responsible for rain. So cloud is your friend. Rain is the friendship that cloud sends for you. You rejoice in that friendship as long as it doesn’t hurt you. But when it hurts you, you feel bad about it. It is not cloud’s fault. It has lots of love for you. It shows love in the form of rain for you. But, you have to understand your limits and take only such amounts of love that does not cause harm to you, in the form of rain from the clouds. It is capable of giving you profuse amounts, but you have to recognize your limits and act accordingly. You cannot blame your friend for your mistakes.”

“Sister danced in rain and so she got cold. That sounds fine. But what did daddy do? Why did rain flood his crops? Why should we be at loss? What explains this?” interjected very sharply the 14 year old elder daughter.

“You’re intelligent. That’s a good question. But before answering you I will ask you few questions.” replied mother.

“Go ahead.”

“Which season is this?”

“Summer”

“Have you ever seen floods or heavy rain fall of this range any time during summer?”

“I never saw.”

“There you have to understand. The problem is not just with the rain, but with all the human beings and the environment together.”

“How is it?”

“Let me put it this way. This entire universe has two entities – The Nature and The Creatures. Nature consists of Earth, Oceans, Air, Sun, Moon, and Fire and so on. You got it?”

“Hmm”

“The Creatures are men, women, plants, animals, birds and all the living organisms. You agree?”

“Yeah”

“Now, there is a friendship between this Nature and Creatures. The Creatures have spoiled the Nature, especially men and women. Air is polluted, Water is polluted, ponds and lakes dried up and every bad thing had happened and continues happening. Global warming started.”

“What is it?” asked both girls at a time.

“See this. Here is earth, here is sun and in between there is a thick layer of air.” Mother showed an opened left hand palm and a closed right hand palm. She continued, “The humanity, I mean men and women, here on earth polluted the air. This air protects us from the ultraviolet rays coming from the sun.”

“What are they?” asked the elder daughter.

“They are high intensity light rays coming from sun. Human beings cannot bear them. Since human beings polluted this air layer around the earth, it became thin and ultraviolet rays fall directly on the earth without obstruction. Then more and more water got dried up. Ice Mountains started occurring on earth.”

“Oh. Very dangerous it is mom,” quipped younger daughter.

“Absolutely it is. Like I said earlier, the friendship between The Nature and The Creatures has crossed the limits. Creatures are to be blamed here. So here is the catastrophe that we are facing today.”

“Is there no solution to this, mom?” asked elder daughter.

“Of course there is. You now understood what is happening. You are able to see the limits in this friendship. Unfortunately many people do not see this. They don’t bother about this. You have to tell them this story and make them aware of the limits in this nature. This is a collective activity. Nature is very big. Humanity is also very big. So we all must understand this problem together. You tell this story to your friends.”

“You’re right mom” said elder daughter.

“My dear girl, here is one more example for you,” mother took an old tambura (a stringed musical instrument) from the attic and whiffed off dust on it and continued. “See this, the instrument is ragged and the strings have lost their tension. This cannot be played now. I’ll tighten the strings now and see how it plays.”

The younger girl took it and played it for a few minutes. Then mother continued, “If I tighten the strings too much they will break. If I do not tight them sufficiently they won’t play. Here is the same message again. Limits, when crossed, are dangerous. Limits, when maintained too low, there is no meaning. Similarly in friendship one has to maintain limits within two the extremities of low and high.”

“Mom, can you define friendship then?” asked elder daughter.

“Sure. I’ll define it from your father’s words.” Mother got up and brought an old diary.

“What is this mom?” asked young girl.

“This is your father’s diary. He maintains all the details of money and investments in this. I have kept this paper here.” She took out an old paper from that and continued. “Here is a short prose written by your father about friendship some years back, before you two were born.”

“Show me! Show me!” elder daughter grabbed it.

“Read it louder. We’ll hear.” Mother said.

My dear friend,

Whenever you cry, I am there to wipe your tears off;

I am there to give solace in times of grief.

Whenever you feel ecstatic, I am ready to give you a hug;

I am ready to feel your happiness.

Whenever you face difficulties, I will substitute myself in your place;

I will struggle to get you rid-off those difficulties.

Whenever you achieve something, I am the first one to feel proud of you;

I will make this world aware of your achievements.

Friendship:

It is all about self less offering of oneself; without expecting anything in return.

It is a form a love; a love that is comparable to, but not above, Mother’s love.

It is all about giving one’s heart; sans any malice.

 

“Mom, this is wonderful. Dad, are you a poet?” asked her father the elder daughter, as he approached them.

“Dear girls, I wrote poems like this some years back. There is no use of it. They never fed my family. I had no studies and no job. I had to take to farming. After all this, my hard earned investment is gone into the flood waters. I had no one to shout at. I had no one to blame to. Life is difficult my dear girls.” father wept in front of them.

“You’ve lost all the money and investment. We have no food to eat. But you have taught us a great lesson father. You have made us understand all this clearly mom. We are very happy” said the elder daughter. Mother took both the daughters to her bosom and wept slowly. She said “Awareness brings confidence my dear children. Be aware!”

Friendship has no limits. But friends have to recognize their limits.

If it is overwhelmed, it cripples normal life. At the same time, if it is under whelmed, life becomes dearth of fruitfulness.

Limits are there for every thing. We need to recognize them for our good.

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