Saturday, August 31, 2013

Celebrating Friendship

On August 26, we celebrated friendship day. PP Arvind Mehan, Rtn Reema Dewan and Rtn S.D. Sharda gave a very beautiful and thought provoking enunciation on friendship.

On the occasion we had among us some special guests: Dr B.N.S. Walia, Hon. Rotarian, friends of Rtn S.D. Sharda—Mr S.S. Bhatia, former CIT, and Mr B.D. Gupta, Settlement Officer—Col G.S. Suri and his wife Kuljit Suri, Arun & Archana Jain from USA, Gen Majithia and his wife Meenu and Pooja Guliani.

PDG Madhukar Malhotra initiated the programme “We are all Rotarians and friends of Rotary,” he said. He impressed upon the members to “enjoy their friendships through service. “Through service we strengthen our friendships,” he added.

PP Arvind Mehan said that friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. But, if you have not learned the meaning of friendship, you have not learned anything at all. While preparing his speech for the occasion, he said, he asked his wife Sadhana what friendship meant to her within their own marriage and how it stood apart from love and companionship? “A friend is the one who not only touches your heart, he touches your soul, was her answer”.

PP Arvind also felt that the only way to have a friend is to be one. “You can wait for years for people to start liking you enough to be friends or you can extend a hand of friendship and become one in an instant.”

“Basically, your friend is a person who knows all about you and still likes you. He neither leads nor follows you, but walks besides you,” he added.

Rtn Reema Dewan was of the view that friends bring an aura of positivity, and the best part is that “they are chosen, not inherited”. She added that “we need to be friends with our self first and only then we can be good friends to others.

Rtn S.D. Sharda compared friendship to that between stars and moon. “Chand aur sitaron kee dosti ek misal hai. Jab chand roashan hota hai, sitaron kee roshni dugni ho jaati hai”. He recited a couplet to elucidate his point: “Jalwe nahin hote, woh nazare nahin hote, jab chand ke pehloo main sitare nahin hote.”

The vote of thanks was proposed by PDG Kawal Bedi.

The evening ended with a fellowship dinner and members enjoying karaoke singing.