a perfect fit

Sitting in a restaurant with my friends, earlier today, cracking jokes and laughing like a bunch of lunatics, a thought suddenly crossed my mind, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." How true. (Though, as usual, I can not remember who had said these lines….)
I feel we define ourselves by the people we love...by our friends. After all, aren’t we judged by the company we keep?
When I was a kid I had a doll, and with her I shared all my secrets as if she where my best friend. But later, when she started acting terribly cutesy and helpless and wailed and whined, I dumped her.
I think this happens to most 10 year olds who suddenly wake up one morning and find, this raggedly thing needs to get life!
And so we get out and get friends, a breathing replica of our dolls, with whom we can talk for hours and talk about anything. We borrow money, clothes and tricks...(oh! and not to forget the bitching and assholing part!!)
A good pal covers-up for us when we are on thin ice, yells for falling in love twice with the same scum, has a shoulder ready for us to cry on. We fight, sneer, exasperate, switch on and switch off, swing from the frigid zone to the tropics and vice versa at the drop of a hat...And then go soapy all over again.
The best part about friends is that we get to choose them. Just give it a thought. From among billions of people in the world, we attach ourselves to just a few. It is after all, a choice we have made. We are constantly fine-slicing the thousands of people who cross our lives, sifting through their characters, matching our nature to theirs, (much as we match our accessories with our outfits) to arrive at that one perfect human being whom we choose to call a friend. To some this click happens rather rarely; to others often. We choose that this person, with a caustic sense of humour or a strong sense of discipline or one with a serene nature, appeals to us. Somewhere along, we see reflections of ourselves in this person. We share the same sentiments, have the same ambitions, love the same movies, dislike the same phobias...we may have opposing viewpoints on some things, but largely, we make a good fit. That’s what friends are. A good fit. We can count on them to be available whenever we need them. With them forgrantedness is not just another F-word; we treat them as an extension of ourselves.