Today "was" friendship day!
Nowadays it takes a dedicated day of the year to mark important relationships, like mother, father, sister & brother (okay we had Rakhi and bhayia dooj even before), wife, husband and even anti-terrorism. I remember as a kid, the fashion of celebrating "Valentine's day" started in our school. That was probably the trend-setter. Now social networking has thrust upon us, these. We must have some post tagging our immediate members on the day. If you don't, then you are a social network outcast. By the way, who determines these days? Mr. Zuckerberg?
Sticking to friendship, I think a great example was set by Mr. Duryodhan and Mr. Karn of the Mahabharat fame. Duryodhan on his part came to the rescue of Karn during the "show of strength" ceremony when the latter was being forbidden to compete with Arjun to establish the supremacy in the art of archery by the learned men of the Hastinapur court. Of course Duryodhan had ulterior motives, but then which relationship does not have that in kaliyug. In return, Karn was a steadfast friend of Duryodhan. Legend has it that when Kunti met Karn before his epic battle with Arjun and told him about his lineage, he refused to shift his loyalty from Duryodhan. I don't know if Duryodhan ever came to know of Karn's real background.
Most of such friends in today's world, would easily chose to reveal the secret. Mr. Karn could call for a meeting between Mr Yudhishthir and Mr. Duryodhan and say to them, "Hey dudes! Look I am the elder brother of all of you all. So I should be the king of Hastinapur. You guys, just chill." Of course one section of the media would try to project Mr. Karn has a "greedy and opportunist" brother. They could also question the authenticity of Ms. Kunit's and Mr. Karn's claims. They would have to eventually undertake a DNA test on the orders of the honourable SC of India.
What I find surprising is, Krishn never once hinted in his ~575 shloks in the Bhagwad Gita to Arjun that you would actually be killing your own elder brother in the battle. Had he, I think it would have been very difficult for him to persuade Arjun to fight. Even after Karn was slain and Arjun came to know about the reality of Karn, he never showed anger or complaint towards Krishn as to why he did not tell him this before, considering they were friends too. There goes, another example of friendship of the ancient times!
Friends, happy friendshiping!!
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