It is an old saying " A friend in need is a friend indeed". But in modern times, it is difficult to have a real friend. The world has got so materialized that even our good-looking friends turn false in the hour of need.
No doubt, friendship has a great value even if it is on the basis of give and take. In the modern society, people join clubs and attend kitty parties to meet there the persons of their own tastes to expand their business.
In our neighbours, we can see the people who are busy in their work and have no time to talk to us. In some cases, it is also found that the members of the same family have no time to talk to one another. Is is because most of the people in modern society have become slaves to all kinds of machinery like cars, computers, phones, etc. and to serve their masters, they keep themselves awfully busy in their jobs. Thus, they have to pay a heavy price and exert a lot. Do they enjoy life in the real sense when they have more friendship with dead matter than the living beings?
So busy is the nerve-straining struggle in this world of tough competition that man has to maintain friendship with his insensate masters instead of his neighbours or his real relatives. Can such a man be expected to play a game with fairness and sincerity?
The time is past when two friends played marbles together or played at cards and also tried to solve the problems of each other. In the modern society, we have no time to play with our friends in the real sense. Even when we have to talk to them we make use of the phone. We meet them face to face, only when we have to do some sort of serious business deal that might be bring some profit to us or when we are completely overthrown by circumstances. Thus, we have turn selfish, selfish, and selfish to the core.
This system is popular with the lower as well as higher sections of society and it is prevalent there in every country. Self-interest is the hallmark of the international society. America will continue her friendship with those countries only that buy weapons of manufatured goods from her. Russia will speak in favour of those countries that buy tanks and war aeroplanes from it. Thus, most of the countries profess frienship with the countries from which they can get some benefir. The whole world trade is based on this sort of false friendship. That is why sometimes it is said " Friendship is false and love is a farce". As a matter of fact, there are no permanent friends and foes in the international arena. The common desire for opulence and luxury which is the corner stone of the western way of life, has given a fillip to the vice of falsehood in friendship. And this fetish has invaded the Indian ethos like horde of locusts. So let the watchword be : "beware! beware!"