Friends? Oh yes, jeevan bhar ke liye

PATNA: Though you can hold yourfriend''s hands and sing "Yeh dosti hum nahi chhorenge" any day and everyday,Uncle Sam has given us a "Friendship Day" — first Sunday of August —to celebrate the bonding. Much to the chagrin of students, however, they don''tmeet most of their buddies, the day being a holiday in schools and colleges. Butthey have thought a way out.Most of the campuses in the city wore ahappening look on Monday with students moving around and tying friendship bandsaround friends'' wrists. Hugs and kisses were exchanged as friends renewedpromises to keep their "dosti" intact "jeevan bhar ke liye".Verypassionate about her friends, Notre Dame Academy''s class VIII student Nidhi''sday began with shopping and it took her about an hour to choose three bands forher three "equally darling" friends. She says she can share everything she haswith her three friends. "Yes. even the most-closely guarded secrets though Ihave none," she replies to a query.Nidhi alone is not crazy aboutfriends. Dipshi Swara had been pestering her mother for past several days totake her to market to buy friendship bands for her eight school friends "whomean a lot to her". The small class V student of St Joseph''s Convent says withelan, "I can go to any extent to help my friends.""Know what? Mydaughter, all of seven years, returned from school very happy and excited... Thefirst thing she wanted to inform me about was that today was ''Friend''s Day'' andthat her friend Sneha had given her a band," said Diya, mother of a Notre DameStd I student. As Diya corrected her daughter that it is calledFriendship Day and that it fell on Sunday and not Monday, the bubbly babycomplained she should have been told earlier. "Get a band from market even now.I missed it and Sneha has asked me to bring one for her tomorrow," she virtuallyordered.However, Pranay Gupta, in class XI at St Michael''s, does notdepend on such silly gestures for cementing ties with friends.