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Friendship Day a youth affair

Staff Reporter

Youngsters throng coffee shops, parks, malls, restaurants and theatres

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Friendship bands were everywhere and on many arms

Incessant drizzle fails to dampen the spirit of friendship

HYDERABAD: The city was awash with excitement on Sunday as youngsters unwound to celebrate Friendship Day, notwithstanding the incessant drizzle . Youngsters either hung out at coffee shops, parks, malls, restaurants, bakeries, movie theatres or just about any place where they can simply gather around and chat.

For some like M. Divya, Friendship Day offered an opportunity to catch up with her schoolmates at the Shamirpet lake. “It was a much needed meet and most of us are leaving for MS in USA,” she said. Food addicts crammed their bellies at their favourite restaurants.

G. Mani, a software engineer, said she had more fun than she usually has on a Sunday. She went out along with her friends and flat mates where they pampered themselves with choicest of food before heading to Tank Bund and Imax. For a change, Varun, an engineering student, played host to his friends while they helped themselves to ‘Double kaMeetha’ prepared by him at his home.

Rakesh Kamal was relatively more lucky than his other pals as he had a chance to steal some time with his girl friend.

They went on a long drive along Necklace Road savouring roasted corn as rain drops drizzled past their faces.

Toast to friendship

Theatres were sold out as movie buffs flocked to catch the latest releases. As if to raise a toast to friendship, ‘Kathnayakudu’, the latest Rajnikanth starrer, had a storyline based on camaraderie.

Young means not just living it up but also going the spiritual or religious way. C. Abhishek and his friends, for instance, had a ‘Devotional Friendship Day’- well, they decided to go to a temple early in the morning before catching a movie later.

Friendship bands were everywhere and on many arms. “I will celebrate Friendship Day tomorrow by tying friendship bands to my friends in college,” said T. Sandhya, an engineering student. It looked like it was the girls who were more interested in thronging the gift shops to get friendship bands and greeting cards.

Not everyone was that lucky though. Some like Shashank working with a MNC had to slog even today as he usually does every Sunday.

Of course, there are some couch potatoes who preferred tuning into the idiot box all day watching various programmes dished out by channels and sending messages through SMS.