Friendship Day
Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Without any introduction to friendship day, let me begin with wishing for a very happy friendship day to one and all, and best wishes to all best friends around the world. It’s that time of the year to celebrate friendship. Any one of the 365 days in the year might not have great significance on friendship, but it is to set aside a day to link the value of friends together on celebrating the meaning of a friend.

Recently India and Pakistan exchanged pleasantries through their foreign ministers meeting in India and holding talks for umpteenth time, and the discussions as always were polite and supposedly positive. There was good amount of press coverage on the visiting minister from Pakistan, and the cordial exchange of pleasantries, but no substantial new agreements were discussed nor contemplated. As usual there was no substance to the talks between the neighbors. But at least a sign of friendship for the duration of the brief tour by the Pakistan minister to India, and hopefully it will translate into meaningful dialogue which might lead to substantial and sustainable understanding between the one time one country neighbors.

Lat few weeks also witnessed the saber-rattling of the USA congress and the President, which eventually ended up with a deal to increase the debt limit and not put the country into chaos. In the weeks leading into the agreement was full of drama that sounded like no way these guys can make a deal to avert the disaster of not having the debt ceiling increased. While each side to the discussion postured to their own self-fulfilling prophecies, the end result was preeminent to the deal finally reached, while the S&P rating was down graded even with the deal to increase the debt ceiling, which really is the reality of the budget shortfalls of the USA. The men kept of smiling during the days leading to the agreement, and shook hands as of they were friends for life. Although they emerged smiling and shaking hands at the end of the debt increase deal, they all knew that the danger of an eventual budget collapse was given another lease on life, and no long term action was put in place to control the ever widening budget deficits, and borrowed money.

Indian politicians have nothing to be friend for as there is a scam and squandering in every department and the numerous inquiries into every action of the center and also state level governance will keep the CBI and the court systems busy for the foreseeable future. Still politicians and bureaucrats go to work every day and make the system interesting. Sometimes it is difficult to know who is in charge of the governance of the massive infrastructure of the country as every day some major scam is bought to foray and they go on and on for a long time before a delegated action is taken on the offenders. There is no friendship in the parliament or state houses for display, and if any is in private it is not really possible to assimilate it to warrant a friendship band for Indian politicos and bureaucrats.

I have fond memories of my childhood friends and the fantastic times we had together. Those were the days where there was no mobile or internet and you really had to walk to your friend if you needed to share anything. I would want to name only a few of my friends and make the mistake of leaving one out. I still am in tough with the guys and although the distance makes it difficult to find them regularly, I do find them and it is like you lost no time to catch with each other. Each one of them is very special and wonderful friends. A very happy friendship day to each and every one of them and to everyone else, its time to reminisce and remember the joys of friendship and also time to make new friends and relive the great times.