Raksi, man from Mysore: hai i am rakshith (devid) from chamarajanagara. “O my

hai i am rakshith (devid) from chamarajanagara. “O my friends, there are no friends.” - Aristotle A friend is a person capable of loving irrespective of whether he is being loved or not. Friendship can exist between the same sex: man-man, woman-woman, or opposite sex: man-woman. It transcends age and could subsist between even an old man and a small boy. Human beings also establish friendships with their pet animals such as cats, dogs, horses, doves and parrots. Friendship can also be felt in familial relationships between father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife, brother and sister, elder brother and younger brother. Yet, more than friendship, love is the binding force in familial relationships. In a deeper sense, love is below friendship because it is an above/below relation, one of hierarchy and condition. It is implied, then, that friendship is freedom plus equality. It involves choice and volition. The concept of friendship needs exploration because often a man is known by the company he keeps; knowing the company helps one to know oneself and develop his personality to the fullest. Each of our friends mirrors a rejected or acknowledged trait in us. They happen to be our friends because it is ourselves in different forms, and a unified vision of them constitutes to the sameness of our identity. Generally, friendship exists for three reasons: a) virtue b) usefulness c) pleasure. When virtue is the reason, friendship exists for the sake of friendship.