I`ll be there for you

Why do we need friends? I am someone who is known to have a very huge circle of friends. And I am very proud of that too. Also I find it very hard to survive without them. A few days back, I had a fight with one of them, my F.R.I.E.N.D. It involved shouting and yelling. Mostly from his side than from mine. And then I took the decision (something I take every time this happens) not to talk to him again. This one time around I thought of figuring out as to why I never stick to this decision. Before that a brief glance into why and how the fight erupted, lest the rest of my friend`s circle who is reading this might mistake that its them I am talking about. We had planned to take a break from our mundane office canteen dinner and go out to a restaurant. This was not my plan in the first place, though the idea of eating some chicken made my hunger cells roar, and I was all for it. Then all of a sudden I see people serving themselves from the canteen food, it seems like there has been a change of plan, I was obviously disappointed and asked my friend why so (in a pretty disturbed and angry tone) He shouted at me in front of all my other friends and people in the canteen. The words were precisely "Shut up and eat, as if you never have bad food otherwise". I was humiliated, insulted and every other feeling which I could have felt listening to something like that. And I took the decision never to speak to him again. Thought I should take a walk and skip dinner, but was too hungry to do that. What happened is the obvious, I talked to him the next day morning, after a little bit of complaining. But why? I have discovered over the years that to be a good friend you need to be low on ego, it gets hurt now and then and if every time you let that ruin a friendship you won’t have any left. People say friends are treasures. I totally agree, and I cash in on them a lot. I have different friends for different purposes. I have categorized them. There is the consistent group better explained as the "no-matter what happens they will be with me" category .These people get onto my speed dial in my mobile (that’s an elite list). If of the opposite gender only strictly platonic people get included. The fella I talked about in the last Para is my speed dial no 8, so that explains. I am digressing-- my very point was why do we need friends? And this is the conclusion I have reached, we need friends to understand us. Understand how we feel, empathize with us, share our experiences, give us an ego boost, have dinner with us , lend us money, tell us the route to the nearest grocery shop, in short even in the worst of our mental states, understand our illogical mumblings. How many of us have true friends who fulfill all the above categories? Very few. And how did I find mine? I hunt for friends, it’s for me like buying a soap, I try them out, if I don’t like their reaction (to my illogical mumblings); they stay out of my speed dial. If I love their reactions, they get in. Once they are in i keep them there inspite of their shouting or the ego clashes they give me. And thus , in my hunt i end up making innumerable friends, being a good one to almost all of them (i am a very patient listener to illogical mumblings ) and I make the most out of it. If I need any kind of help, I can easily fish out a phone number of someone who will come to my rescue. None of them feel I am using them, as I am a close personal friend to all. Makes me a dependent person. But so what?