Friends Forever

It's the first day of graduate classes at a brand new university, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It's a brand new country, the US of A. It's a brand new weather pattern – 5 inches of snow with a chill factor of Heaven knows how much. Not to mention the chill factor in my heart. I have cold feet – literally and figuratively.

But I shake hands with the two young men sitting on both my sides. On my right:

"Hello. I'm Erick Alvarado from 'Em Eye Tee'."

M.I.T. – Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gulp!

On my left with a thick accent and a bobbing head:

"I'm Balan Dinesh from 'Eye Eye Tee' Kanpur."

I.I.T. – Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Gulp! Gulp!!

But, not to be undone: "I'm Naveed Mahbub from 'Bee You Eee Tee'."

That's B.U.E.T. – Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Erick: "I get the 'U', 'E' and 'T', but where is Bangladesh?"

Sad. More so, I feel so inferior. There goes our self imagined pride and a thousand layers of hierarchy based on our Alma Maters and degrees within the narrow confines of Bangladesh.

But the complex subsides within a mere few weeks as the three of us – an Indian, an American and a Bangladeshi pool in our knowledge as we ace every test and assignment. More so, a sense of pride as the I.I.T. guy and the M.I.T. bloke look up to this B.U.E.T. fellow for every conceivable math solution in our super complex Stochastic and Random Processes class. And I recall my B.U.E.T. professor Dr. Matin, "Naveed, if you have the desire to learn, you can learn at Abu Gifari College (with all due respect to the college), and if you don't want to learn, you will not learn even at M.I.T."

It is only for one semester that we three have common classes. But it is these four months that forge a friendship of a lifetime even as the three of us disperse off to the three corners of the world. Friendship can happen anytime, anywhere, at any age and with anybody. Period.

Of course, there is the friend with whom I never went to the same school or college, didn't grow up, was not a neighbor of, didn't have any common friends and have nothing in common. In fact, we are diametrically opposites of each other in terms of outlook, lifestyle, interests and hobbies. But we are the closest of friends simply because he is crazy enough to run nude in Shahbagh just to win a mere bet and scatter human excrements in a Notre Dame College classroom just to foil an adamant class test on a hartal day when every other institution in the country remained closed. Opposites attract.

But friendship has added a new dimension. Welcome Facebook. The world now limits FRIENDs to a maximum of 5,000. You then say WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND. A true FRIEND honestly COMMENTs right in your face. But remember, there is a WALL, the digital cover of which gives everybody the courage of Hercules – a digital manifestation of the brick wall of yester years from whose behind people threw stones at the unaware public. A FOLLOWER then slams you in front of your FRIENDs and other FOLLOWERs which in turn is LIKEd by a FRIEND. Hmmm – the beckoning of the UNFRIEND button.

But with all the different dimensions of friendship, we celebrate Friendship Day. As the saying goes, "A friend in need is a friend indeed". I will be happy if you don't find any need for me as that means you are not in any crisis as I strive to be the bestest of best friends to everyone. But I never can – the bar has been set very, very high by Faraz….

The writer is an engineer at Ford & Qualcomm USA and CEO of IBM & Nokia Siemens Networks Bangladesh turned comedian (by choice), the host of ABC Radio's Good Morning Bangladesh and the founder of Naveed's Comedy Club. E-mail: naveed@naveedmahbub.com