True Friendship

This is a story about 50 years ago. There lived two great friends, Amit and Salim in a village in Jalgaon district in Maharashtra. They were together since the class I and were always seen celebrating each other’s festival with full enthusiasm. Now, they were studying in a college, which was at a far distance from their place. Their friendship was famous in college. On the way to college, they had to cross a river, pass hills and sandy area too.

One rainy day, the two friends set out for college as usual. They were discussing some topic on politics which happened to be a little controversial. The two had different opinions which led to heated arguments. This was followed by the abusive language used by both of them. Things got so bad that in a fit of anger Amit slapped Salim. It was shocking for Salim and he stared at his friend and wrote on sand that “Today my best friend slapped me.” Both resumed their walk but now they were silent and did not talk to each other.

While walking they reached the river which was overflowing because of heavy rains since last night. Salim was not a good swimmer. He stepped into the river but began to drown and flow with force of water in the direction of the flood. Amit saw this and without thinking for a second jumped into the river. Risking his life, he dragged Salim out of the river and then helped Salim restore his normal breath.

In a few minutes when Salim became normal, he wrote on a stone on the hill that “Today my best friend saved my life.” Amit who was observing all this could not help asking, “why did you write it on the sand when I slapped you and why are you writing on the stone when I’ve saved your life?” Salim replied that “we should forget from our memory any wrong done by our friends as writing on sand gets erased in no time, but if they do something good for us we should always remember their kindness just as writing on stones is forever.” Saying this Salim hugged his friend and the two went to college as if nothing had happened.

Thus, a Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.