A good friend is a great boon. Genuine friendship is a real blessing in life. But good and true friends are rare. In the present day selfish and materialistic world they have become more rare. There are many fair weather friends. But is not easy to find a faithful friend and companion.

A friend in need is friend indeed. A good friend is always ready to make a sacrifice for his friend. He does not care for his personal gain or comfort. Faithfulness, sincerity, love and sacrifice are the hallmarks of true friendship. Like love, it inspire confidence, hope and optimism. But these days friendship is used very casually. Generally, all the persons whom we often call friends are not real friends. They are just acquaintances and familiar persons with whom we often come in contact. A true friend is one with whom we share all our secrets, joys, sorrows and thoughts. He is a true advisor, well-wisher and great help.

They are really fortunate who have at least one true and sincere friend. Without such a friend half the joy of life is gone. I am really lucky in this respect. I have a number of friends in the general sense, but only Rakesh is my genuine friend. He is of my age and my class-fellow. He is my best friend. And I am really proud of him. He also cherishes my friendship and regards m his very intimate friend. We cannot think of life without each other. We have been best friends for 5-6 years. There has never been any misunderstanding between us.

Rakesh is of sweet nature, good manners and very polite. His parents are high officials in the Central Government. They are rich, have their own big house, car and all other amenities of modern life. And yet he is never proud or arrogant. His parents love me like their own son. Similarly, my parents love Rakesh much. He is often at my house. My mother prepares special dishes for him.

We are often together and do our home work in each other?s company. we play together, enjoy story-telling and share jokes and anecdotes. He lives a few houses away from my own house. We have a common hobby of playing chess. It is an intellectual game and we both enjoy it. We discuss so many points and intricacies of the game and make strategies for the next round of the play. But we play only in the spare time and for the sake of pure pleasure, recreation and development of or analytical skills. Rakesh is an intelligent student he is always on the top. He helps me in my science lesions and practicals. And I in my turn help him in English. He is not weak in English but not so brilliant as I am in the subject. We study together with a sense of healthy competition without jealousy or envy. However, many students fell jealous of our intimate and sincere friendship, but we never care about them. We really swim and sink together.