Come, let us look for friends today. Let us look for such friends as will never let us down. Let us look out for friends who will never lead us astray.
Everybody needs a friend. If you don’t have friends you feel sad. When your best friend goes out of town for a few days, you miss him. Don’t you? We need friends. Without friends, you feel bored. You don’t know what to do. You have nobody to talk to. You feel lonely.
Good friends will never cheat you. They will never teach you to do wrong. With good friends you spend the time so well that you don’t even know how the hours flew by! Beware of those who tell you to do things that are wrong. They are not your friends.
It is difficult to choose friends. Sometimes you just don’t know who is good and who is not. When this happens, you select the wrong kind of friends.
So come along now. Let us hunt for true friends in libraries, hidden among many shelves, in the pages of books. Yes, this is your true friend – a good book. This friend will never cheat you. This friend will always be yours.
It happens sometimes that a person seems to have everything. Yet, he is dissatisfied. This is because he does not have knowledge. When you have knowledge, you can see and understand the world and its creatures better. People who do not have knowledge cannot see. They can be compared to a pot that has no water.
There are many ways of gaining knowledge. One sure way is to make a habit of going to the library or visiting e-libraries on the web and spending time with true friends.
Do you sometimes say that you do not have the time to read? Is this really true? But think? Don’t you sometimes waste time? You can waste time by taking a long time over one job, by sleeping too long, by gossiping, by roaming around the neighbourhood, by telling yourself – “ Oh, it is 15 minutes to seven. Okay, I will start at 7,” or “next week I’ll be up early…” All these are ways of wasting time. From now onwards, spend this time reading books, e-books. When you grow up you will realise that there is no greater curse than ignorance. But you will never be ignorant because you know how to spend your time usefully.
You should get into the habit of reading regularly. In fact you should read a little every day. Even one hour, or even half an hour will do. You have heard of the great English poet Longfellow. Do you know, he managed to complete some translations in the time it took for his coffee to boil.
Lessons are learnt at home as well as at school. If you concentrate on your work for one hour at home, it is as good as four hours spent at school. Get into the habit of reading on your own. Get into the habit of studying by yourself.
As there are good and bad people, good and bad friends, similarly there are good and bad books too which may put you on the right or wrong track. Always read good books. Good books do not give transitory entertainment but give internal peace. He who seeks friendship in books has no need for other friends.
Read good books. You will enjoy them. You will also learn so much from them. Love your books. They are your best friends.