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Friends are forever

Photo: M. Moorthy

Strong A binding factor

Recalling tales of friendship made at kindergarten, those that last a lifetime, are always heart-warming. For all those time-tested friendships and even long-lost ones, tomorrow (Sunday) is the day to raise a toast with indulgence.

The trend of celebrating Friendship Day, falling on first Sunday of August, has caught on with the young lot in the city. They meet their confidants, exchange gifts and strap wrist bands to strengthen the bonds of friendship. Offering them loads of choices to express their fondness are the greeting cards and ‘friendship bands’ that have flooded shops in the city.

While cards are picked to carry messages of love to long-distance soul mates, wrist bands sell like hotcakes for those who choose to meet up with friends on that day. Bands with plaited colour threads, which cost Rs. 10, are the first pick for most. Most shops have stockpiled satin ribbon bands, with a price tag of Rs. 3, that go easy on your pocket and best suited for mass purchases. Metal and beaded ones can make a funky substitute for girls’ wristlets.

“Wrists bands are the coolest gifts for Friendship Day. But guys get to sport a lot many of it throughout the month since Raakhi follows soon after this,” says Aasha Subedhar, a class XI student.

Greeting cards, meanwhile, have their set of patrons. Like Rajeshwari Kannan who makes it a point to post cards on every occasion. “I’ve been sending e-greetings to my friends for a couple of years. It later dawned upon me I had received heaps of such greetings in my inbox and never cared to open those. But I still treasure cards received from my school friends in my diary. E-greeting might be easier to send but doesn’t really serve the purpose,” she says, sifting through the cards stacked at Odyssey.

If you are planning to pick one for your buddy, make sure the words are not poignant. Funny ones are much in vogue and more trendy, if it’s made out of recyclable paper. Nandhini Ramani, a final year engineering student, suggests an aesthetic photo frame slotted in with a snapshot posing both the friends.

She doles out more such ideas to impress your friends. “You could cull photos of the friends uploaded in the computer but dumped in a folder to make into an e-album through Picasa or Yahoo and forward it to pals on that day. It hardly takes 15 minutes to complete the work but worth cherishing it forever.”

Astound your bibliophile buddies with best-selling books of the month. “It could be something as serious as ‘Last Lecture’ or Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Three mistakes of my life’ for some light reading. But before you spend from your pocket, check out with friends whether they have a copy of it already,” Aasha suggests.

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