Tawsif Mahbub, actor
Friends are like a door to happiness to me. When there’s strife in my work life or my family life, I can go to my friends and I have no tension there. No rules, no pressure. That is the best thing about friendship.
It’s said you can’t make friends in the media; everybody is after their own interests. But I think I’m very lucky to have found a group of people that I’m genuinely good friends with. Like, when we’re outside of work, we don’t talk about work. We talk about totally random things, like friends should.
Friendship Day used to be a big event when we were in school and we’d have friendship bands and everything. But now, I don’t think we need a particular day for it. Sunday is a work day, and everyone is busy, so you often don’t get to make plans with friends for the day. But any day I go out with my friends is Friendship Day to me, so that’s okay I think.
Rushnaf Wadud, musician
Friends are a different sort of family. When we’re small, we’re told family is everything; they will care for you and be at your side. But then you grow up and go to school … I went to boarding school so my family was always very far away. My friends were my family. And when you make those kinds of friends, they stay with you for the rest of your life.
Like, the band that I’m in (Blunderware), most of us are childhood friends, who reconnected when we grew up. Also, there are other bands like Circus Police and Alternation with whom we’re very tight. When two musicians are there jamming together, and their instrument is doing the talking, it’s another kind of connection, different from just talking.
I know a lot of people say Friendship Day is just a business gimmick, but I say “Why not?” You take a day out to commemorate what’s Important to you. We celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, why not friendship?
Sheyuti Shahgufta, theatre activist
I think friendship is special because in friendship, there’s no judging. There are certain things I cannot talk about with my family, certain things I cannot discuss with a romantic partner, but with a friend, there’s no bar. Even if I’m wrong, my friends will not judge me, but try to understand my situation.
There’s a sort of social barrier, however subtle, about boys and girls being ‘friends’ in most social situations. However, in theatre, that barrier is not there. I think it has made it easier for me to make friends in the theatre arena and outside of it. Many people argue that friendship doesn’t need a day to be celebrated. But for instance, my parents didn’t need a particular day to celebrate the day I came to the world, they are thankful and happy about it every day. But still there’s a day of the year set aside for it. I think it’s important that we celebrate friendship, and Friendship Day is significant to me.
Taaha Chowdhury, TV host
Friends are my other world, where I can be equally comfortable and safe as I am in my family. But what’s special about it is it’s a place where I don’t have to wear a mask, I don’t have to pretend.
We meet and develop connections with people every time we go to work someplace new. It often happens that we don’t see them after we finish that project, but sometimes the bonds we have, remains. There are people I worked with a long time ago, but they still call and check on me regularly, so that’s a different kind of special.
I don’t think celebrating Friendship Day is very necessary. But it’s a good occasion to recall the friends you’ve had, and maybe lost touch with, and even reconnect. For the friends we still have, a special day needs not be marked.
Lamia Saiyara Mela, dancer
Friendship gives us a space in our life where we’re just ourselves, regardless of other factors. It helps us express who we really are.
I met and got to know different kinds of people, through dance. Not a lot of people from my educational background (English Medium) take up extra-curricular activities, so I found this new circle of people when I started. But since we see each other on a daily basis, there’s a connection that develops. I’ve made some very good friends here. But at one point, they’re also your colleagues, and the dynamics is a little different from your other friends.
I don’t think friendship needs a specific day to celebrate, to be honest. I think it’s kind of constricting.
by- Fahmim Ferdous
ref.:- daily star
