Express what you feel...

It was a Sunday evening... My cell phone started ringing when I was riding my bike... Since I am in the learning phase of bike riding, I was very much concentrated on the road, traffic, gears and brakes... So I didn't pickup the phone thinking to call back whoever called me... After a thrill drive on the crowded traffic, I reached home and saw the mobile to know who called me...

I mostly will get calls from ICICI or HDFC kind of banks for free credit cards or pre-approved personal loans or some wrong persons calling "hello ramasamy irukara..." for which my answer would be "he just left to New York in the morning flight..." and hang the phone... But this time my missed call list showed one of my very close friend's name...

I called him back and instead of hearing "hi.. how are you?", I just heard his angry voice saying, "hey what are you doing da... forgot everyone over here ah...? I am in extreme angry on you"... Not only were his words choleric but also his voice...

I replied with a smile,"hey nothing like that da... its just that I have been kind of busy..." I know that was a lame excuse... I never believe, people saying 'I couldn't get time to call you since I had been dumped up with lots of work...' I always wonder, "don't they get a minute between the breaks to call his friends and say 'hi buddy... sorry couldn't talk for a long time since I am busy but wanted to say hi'... Won't they get few moments just to say a 'hi' at least..." Definitely you can call friends and family to say a 'hi' and talk to them for few minutes irrespective of how busy you are... Busy, work tension blah blah blah never matters...

Though I know everything, I didn't have any other reason to say other than "sorry buddy… I have been quite busy..." I know why he was angry on me... He was not feeling well for the past few days... He was severely suffering from illness... but I couldn't get sometime to call him and ask how he was... He clearly expressed how disappointed he was for not hearing my voice asking his wellness.

When he said, "I was surprised why you didn't call me even though you know I am not feeling well... that is not the Paul whom I know..." I really respected his feelings and in fact, I am glad that he called me and said that he was angry and disappointed in me for not showing care towards him (instead of keeping that in mind and showing his disappointment in some other way like not speaking properly or something like that). I liked him for being frank to express what he felt...

A relationship is successful when you are comfortable to express how you feel... it doesn't matter whether you are happy, sad, glad, angry, disappointed, excited, motivated, depressed etc... When you are able to express what you feel with someone, then you have a very healthy and successful relationship. For a lasting relationship, this is really important.

I am glad that I have few close and good friends with whom I have such a lasting relationship... Expressing how you feel in a nice way always helps to reduce the gap and increases the affection between two... And I felt that during the moments of talking to my friend on that Sunday...