Once upon a time there used to be an old radio show on Vividh Bharti called Hawa Mahal. It used to feature a 15 minutes comedy drama every night. It was our prime source of entertainment. One night there was a comedy drama consisting of an argument between a woman and a man over the ownership of a chicken. After the program was over, my sister who was a few years older than me (come to think of it she still is!) suggested to me, "Come on, let's fight just like those people!" It sounded like fun to enact a drama so I said okay. I was about 3-4 years old I think.
She started, "Ye meri murghi hai, meri murghi, samjhe? Meri murghi!" ("It's my chicken, my chicken, ok? My chicken!" )
And I said, "Teri hai to tu le le, behan, lad kyon rahi hai?" ("If it's yours you take it, why are you fighting with me?")
She laughed at my quick surrender and that was the end of my career as a radio actor.
But I never was one to launch into a conflict easily. I was reminded of that old incident today when a friend whom I like very much suddenly said, "Okay, let's fight!"
You see, we are good friends, but we have our moments when I say something and she takes it otherwise or she says something and I don't take it in the spirit in which it was meant. So we have an occasional misunderstanding which leads to one or both of us saying sorry later. We had had a couple of those occasions last week and suddenly today on chat she says, "Let's fight!"
Silly me. I agreed with her. And we launched into this not-so-real-not-so-fake fight. All the time she was typing her grievances against me, I was replying in kind, but I could not help laughing all this time. It was good that this was on chat and she couldn't see me grinning. Needless to say that I lost the fight.
But then suddenly she made a mistake. She smiled! And just like that the fight was over! :) I have to admit it was a good exercise to air the grievances without jeopardizing our friendship.
I think it's important to remember that in fighting with a friend, a smile is your best weapon!
Moral of the story: When you don't mind losing the fight you know you have found a real friend!
