Paulo Coelho has said in his book, The Zahir - True friends are not those who come with their sympathy in times of grief. They are the ones who come with their sad faces because they don't feel lonely in knowing the fact that someone else is suffering too. I admire Paulo Coelho's work, but this statement of his, I feel it's way out of line.
Just yesterday I happened to send a poem written by me to one of my friends. She replied with a palpable sense of melancholy. It so happened that she bid farewell to her love the same day knowing the fact that they won't ever be together. I had no idea of the pain she was going through and my poem seemed to have brought her again on the verge of tears. Her life hadn't been going as it should have for the past some months. I apologized for my message though really I had no idea about the damage it could do. I comforted her and told her that she shouldn't cry over the passing of those whose time had come. I knew it was a matter of time. Time that heals and makes it all so fine. Time would take away her pain and she would be happy again. But till then I knew she needed some support. I would give it to her and I did. Never once did I think that - "Oh, she's suffering like I did" and feel content about this fact. I had been through what she was going through and I knew it. But to think that this was a thing to be happy about was very selfish.
Yes, when I am forced to go to someone's funeral or observe a minute's silence for someone who has passed away or comfort someone whom I barely know for the pain in his life I do wear a mask. I make a sad face and do it. Frankly, why should I bother? What's the death of someone whom I have hardly met matter to me? Yes, that is the time I am truly indifferent.
But Mr. Paulo Coelho, though I really loved The Zahir, true friends do share the pain and that too selflessly! I'll be there for them when they need me because I know that they'll be there when I need them. So does the life go on.
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