By Nawra Mehrin

Friendship is an incorporation of love, companionship,good fellowship ,mutual understanding, helpfulness, emotional bonding;it is about sharing sweet memories,inner-most feelings, jokes, white lies and funny pranks! A healthy friendship brings out the best in us; it teaches us the value of sharing and caring;it sometimes contributes to our happy existence!

A good friend is hard to find. Throughout our lives we make friends to serve our daily purposes and make life more colourful! At one point in life, especially during adolescence we bid farewell to our parents' expectations, lose interest in family affairs and dissolve our interdependence on family members,.....the people with whom we spend a considerably long time of our lives come closest to our hearts. However, many people would differ here and at this point the limelight falls on me. Finding a “good friend” and nourishing this holy relationship“friendship” is indeed a very challenging and promising task. A good friend should possess appreciable conduct, commendable attitude and aptitude: he/she should be a person whom you can trust with your life; a person who is there beside you as a faithful guide; a person who always holds your hands and tells you the truth even if it bites...A good friend will love you when you forget to love yourself, he/she will be there beside you not for any personal gains but because he/she chooses to be with you through thick and thin...because you make a big difference in his/her life too!

The only person on Earth who fulfills all my requirements of a “good friend” is my mother. It is her intangible love which initiates love and affection in my everyday life...my day begins with the sight of her angelic smile and it ends with her very valuable words of advice...and each night before going to bed I promise myself to try and be a better person, if not for myself than for my mother! Her patience and hardwork have molded me into the person that I am today. She is the one who has given the greatest priorities to all my dreams, ambitions, aspirations, wants and needs. I have shared all my tears and smiles, joys and sorrows, failures and achievements,...with my “mum.”

She has helped me face challenges with determination, she taught me to reach for the stars and not the sky! I'm everything that I am only because of you, “mum.”

In this mechanical and selfish world who else is there who is ready to offer so much, anytime and everytime?

“My mom...Yes,she is a beautiful lady with a selfless mind..She sings bed-time songs for me.She prepares scrumptious food whenever my stomach churns for delicacies. She's a good teacher and guide too,a merciless constable at times though”...for all these I owe a profound sense of gratitude,respect and love for my mothermy mentor and a “fantabulous” friend! “Mum,I am proud and blessed to be your baby!”