Fun things you can do with your best buddies on this very special day.

By Gopika Vaidya

It’s true we can’t choose our relatives, so we’d better do a good job of choosing our friends. Friends come in all shapes and sizes – thin friends, fat friends, tall friends, short friends, smart friends, dumb friends, the kind of friends who make you laugh till you cry and the kind that make you cry till you howl! They could be people you went to school with, older friends, your brother or sister, work colleagues, your neighbours and building friends with whom you’ve spent many an evening playing kho or kicking a football, and even your parents

And what better day than Friendship Day to let your friends know just how special they are to you. We’ve come up with a list of fun things you can do with your best buddies on this very special day.

• Have a pajama party with your closest friends. Rent your favourite movies, toss a bag of popcorn in the microwave, binge on gooey almond-mocha-chocolate ice cream, bring out the warmest fuzziest blankets and have a ball!
• Plan a special day with your best friend or group of friends. Go bowling, play a game of cricket or go for a boat ride.
• Dress up for your friends! Go out to dinner and make sure you’re dressed in your best clothes instead of the ratty jeans you normally wear.
• Make your friends a friendship with photographs, poems, pictures – anything and everything that commemorates your friendship. You could use a piece of a t-shirt your best friend gave you when you were 5, a pressed sunflower you plucked together when you were in 4th grade or notes you passed to each other discussing your latest crushes!
• Post your friends cards through snail mail. And for those friends who live away from home, send them the brightest, most musical e-cards you can find on the net.
• Do something totally wacky like wear rainbow coloured wigs and go for a walk on the road, or have a fancy dress party like you did when you were little. Make sure you take plenty of pictures so you can laugh about it years later!
• Get out all your old photographs, letters, cards, notes and videos and spend a sentimental evening looking through them. You’re sure to come up with plenty of “Remember when…” incidents that are sure to keep you in splits. Have a tub of ice cream ready to dig into as you take a trip down memory lane.
• Make a list of all the awful crushes you had when you were younger! Not only will you guffaw with horror when you realise how awful the objects of your affection were, but you’ll also feel really good about whom you’re with, if you’re dating someone, or better still, if you’re single, you’ll sigh with relief when you realise what you missed!
• Make a special friendship band for all your friends in the colours of the rainbow. Making a a Friendship Band is easy, you will need just 4 strands of crochet or embroidery thread, each a different colour and some scotch tape, and... follow these instrctions:
  • Gather all four strands together and knot them at the top, leaving between one to two inches of string above the knot. Tape the end to a table securely.
  • Take string one and do a basic friendship knot (directions below) around string two. Then do another friendship knot with string one around string two. Now you have two friendship knots done with string one around string two.
  • Make two friendship knots with string one around string three, and then do the same around string four.
  • Now change the order of the strings. After you’ve finished making friendship knots with string one around strings 2, 3, and 4, string 1 becomes string 4, string 2 becomes string 1, string 3 becomes string 2, and string 4 becomes string 3.
  • Continue till your friendship band is the length you want it to be. Knot the end and trim edges. Make sure you leave enough thread on the ends to be able to tie it to your friend’s wrist.
  • Basic Friendship Knot: Hold string 2 firmly, place string 1 over string 2, then under, then through. While still holding string 2 firmly, pull up on string 1 until the knot is snugly in place.