The bond between persons of same gender, males as well as females, in stages of childhood, youth, adulthood and advanced age passes off as friendship. Other bonds have acquired fascinating types, thanks to the societal ethos about such togetherness. Husband and wife, as long as they live under one roof, irrespective of compatability between them, either in privacy or in the open, are said to be held together in a relationship. When either of them break the oath of adhering to mutual trust administered during their wedding ceremony, both in good times and adversities, seeking companionship outside their two-some life, their bonding acquires the much-gossipped-about badge of an affair. While history as well as epics present affairs of kings both in India and other regions of the world, the incidents of extramarital adventures of persons in high posts, particularly Presidents of their respective countries, continue unabated, making news much to the delight of people at large. The idiom Birds of the same feather flock together applies to the human species only as long as the feathers are intact !
The rules of the game of friendship may not have been written in precise terminology but the example in the narrative of epic Mahabharata citing the friendship between Krishna and Kuchela stands out as classic case. The idiom A friend in need is a friend indeed may have taken birth drawing from that example.
