I woke up this morning wanting to talk, to someone who doesn’t judge, to someone who knows all sides of me. While my husband fits the bill, he’s my husband. And that doesn’t do it for me. Its just not the same as talking to a friend of the same gender.

Well, its not like I don’t have ‘friends.’ I do. I have loads of them – the real ones and the kind you meet, you greet and you end up having on your friend list. Does it mean anything- those additional ‘friends’? No. Not when you want to sit back and abuse the world for all the wrong happening in your life and then laugh after you’ve got it all out or when you just want to share how good you’re feeling with someone who knows you in and out and cares for you.

The word, ‘Friend’ has been brutally assaulted in these times. Thanks to social media, everybody’s a friend. Its’ weird how people meet you once and you may or may not have even exchanged a word with them and the next thing you know is you have a friend request on Fb. And it’s only at times like these, that you scroll down lists and you realize, that you have but very few, real friends who might be separated by time, distance or just ‘going through life.’ And as wonderful as social media is, there is nothing like a face-to-face conversation with real friends – those who know you and accept you without judgement or censure and will laugh when you fall but will also give you a hand to rise at the same time. Those you can sit back and giggle with endlessly and whom you can speak to without thinking ‘ be careful for whatever you say might be held against you in the court of law‘ or ‘maybe I need to stop because my time’s up’

Today is one such day when I felt the need for a friend who has all the time in the world to listen to me. Fortunately, one person came to my mind. A colleague, a team member, a friend, a loyal supporter, a listener – she was much more than all of that to me. Someone who expected nothing in return.

On second thoughts, there are three that come to my mind but all of them so far away with fate having plucked me from where I lived and grew and planted me in a soil where I took birth. After a year here, I miss them today, more than ever before. I guess I had shut them in a box for a while and had avoided looking in the direction, for fear of feeling sad.

I’m not sad as I write this. I consider myself fortunate that I found such friends or they found me. Whatever be the case, I feel blessed that in this rather crazy world, I found something genuine and real; not once but atleast thrice.

Read the poem and let me know if you could relate to it and if there is someone like this in your life. If there is, count yourself lucky because such people are rare and precious – like rainbows.