A lot will say that it is their relationship with their homes, siblings or parents that have a positive impact; or even bestfriends or childhood sweethearts.

Everyone has a different way of feeling safe. The most important factor is having a space where you feel safe. That space can be a person or a very good friend. The most important factor is – they are supposed to make you believe in yourself.

I am not a gang-friend kind of person. I have well-chosen, few, handpicked friends. And they know me. When I say they know me, I mean they really know me. They know my madness, the crazy part of me, the unmanageable, irrational idiot I can be, the sensible and articulate creature that I can be. In short, they have seen all colors of me and they are okay with that.

Why – they accept me for the person I am.

I love writing; I have been writing ever since I was a kid. As the youngest child in a semi-orthodox family, you get told off a lot when you want to do something “different”. My friends – whom I met at the end of my teen years – know that I love writing. And they are the ones who have pushed me – throughout my life.

They have encouraged me to write, publish and blog and they know I gabble a lot of nonsense and some of them are incomprehensible; my works are strewn all around the house but they pick it sensibly arrange it because they KNOW the idiot that I am.

And such friendships have had immense impact in my life. I am thankful to the universe for sending these people to me – they have encouraged me to work hard in the corporates, yet they have also made sure I never gave upon my passion. On any odd day, they would turn up with diaries, books and pens and replenish my dwindling stock.

If they are out on a trip and find fancy stationery or library, they think about me and get me something. Every action is a step in a positive direction. As a writer, sometimes I do crazy things like walking around the house at 3 AM, gaping at ceilings and reenacting the whole scene and sometimes even weeping with no apparent instigation. And yet, they never faltered for a second.

I adore them to pieces for having stuck around in my craziness. And I stick around with them when it is their turn.

My friendships have helped me a lot.