This
one goes for a friend, who walked his own way from being just a friend to a
Great Friend and eventually becoming a Best Friend
We have always been just
colleagues before… when we worked in the same office. Whatever his name is, that’s
not important. He used to sit close to me in office but we hardly spoke. We
were more like next door colleagues occasionally crossing each other, exchanging
friendly smiles. We could never manage the time to talk to each other till we
were scheduled for an Official Conference in Jaipur. A major portion of the
conference comprised of group presentations which included the Industry information,
facts and figures in the form of a presentation. The entire department gets
divided into a number of groups and each group is assigned a topic in which they
need to present. This guy and I were in the same group when we actually started
talking to each other. Our topic was simple but involved a lot of data analysis
and we had allocated the work of presenting the same to one of a senior team
member. I was supposed to prepare the slides with the help of the team. Slides
were prepared and facts and figures were in prefect place. It all started when
one day I found him asking me to give the presentation all of a sudden -- “Why
don’t you give the presentation yourself? You have worked on the entire thing
and you know all the slides so well.”
I was taken aback – “I am not good at
presentations. I am sure I will create a mess out of the entire thing. Let the
senior person handle this.” That’s all I had replied.
He pressed it once again, - “But you have
worked on the entire thing and the presentation looks so cool. I really feel
you should do it. I am sure you will get a lot of appreciation.”
Everything went perfectly
fine till we reached the destination when suddenly the one who was supposed to
present, backed out for some silly reason. My scariest nightmare came true, everyone
looked up to me. I was loosing my nerves
out of anxiety. The beautiful hotel where we were putting up became a hell for
me and I was scared to death at the very idea of giving a presentation. I was sure that I am going to bring down all
the good work done by the team members. I had no escape as I was the only one
who had worked in preparing the slides.
It was that critical moment
when he came as a pillar of strength for me. He sat next to me putting words of
encouragement and made me realize that it’s difficult but not impossible. We spoke
for a long at night. I can’t remember what exactly we spoke, but I clearly
remember that I was pretty relaxed when I returned to my room.
The next day was a new day
for me when I learnt that even I can give a real good presentation. Everyone
appreciated for my good work. I saw him sitting in the crowd smiling at me and clapping
when the presentation got over. I had received loads of appreciation from
everyone except him. I could feel that he was extremely happy but he never came
to congratulate me. It was all because of him that I got the courage to face
the audience and put forward my ideas. I felt a pang of disappointment when he didn’t
come and talk to me. We were sitting together since morning when the other
presentations were going on and he made sure that I don’t develop a stage fear.
Later in the evening when I
was having tea alone in the porch, I heard someone saying, -- “You know what…
You are like our Lord Hanuman, who needs someone to make you realize how
powerful you are.”
It was him. I thought he had
come to congratulate me but what he did was something completely unexpected. He
actually came to scold me. “Why do you need to de-mean yourself every time?
When every other person is so confident, then why are you being so stubborn
about your capabilities?” I was shocked by the way he reacted. He was very
serious about what he was saying. I failed to understand why he reacted that
way, when he suddenly said, “I am not like others. I will not only come to
celebrate with you when you do well, instead I will make sure that you do well.
Always remember that.” And he simply turned back and walked out.
It was a moment a
realization for me. A friend is not someone who will come in your good times. A
real friend instead will help you to fulfill your dreams; someone who will be
there when you are low. The world will cheer your happiness but you will always
be alone when you are down. A true friend will give you all the strength and
support and make you succeed in life; and when the world cheers for you, they
will simply stand in the crowd clapping for you and feeling proud of you. A
true friend will be one who will bring out the best in you. And then without
notice, this person became a very close friend to me and today, he is one of
the very few people whom I consult for all my problems. I am sure that he will
always be there for me and bring out the best in me. Later that night we had
dinner together with all other friends and he was all in throughout the good
times. The entire Conference went extremely well and in addition to the
confidence level I won a very good friend who I am sure will be with me till
the end of time.
And that’s how; this
stranger walked his own way from being just a friend to a Great Friend; eventually
becoming a Best Friend.
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