Emotional blackmail

As if I was not thinking enough of friendship and relationships, another sms landed on my cell raising a critical issue between responding to a message and living up for a thought that defines me. The problem is my stance would eventually reflect on the relationship between the sender and the receiver of the message, in positive or negative. How serious it is difficult to ascertain, as this cannot be ascertained at all. Certain issues are useless to ponder on but need to be tackled deftly; why, even I don't know, but we definitely need to.

Like many people, my Valentines Day went away in sorting pending works. But the very next day i.e. today, I received an sms on World’s Best Friend week (I never knew this fact). Here it goes..

“Do you know the relation between your 2 eyes? They blink together, move together, cry together, see things together & sleep together. Though they never see each other, friendship should be just like that. Life is hell without friends. It is World’s Best Friend Week. Send this to all your good friends. Even me, if I am one of them. See how many you get back. If you get more than 7, then you are really great and loveable friend to those 7 and more. Have a gr8 weekend.”

A pretty long 1 4 a msg in ‘short messaging service’ age. It split me in two minds immediately… whether to reply or not. The fact that emotional sms-es are a marketing gimmick is well known; for sure, the strategy to sell emotions by Hutch using the AirTel(ephone) has turned out to be a big money minting Idea for all telecom service providers. But the fact is should we respect the sender for a forwarded message or use our own discretion to reply or not. Had it been a simple (and original) sms asking me about my life, wats hpnin types.. I would have responded without a blink. But these sms-es tend to take away the underlying feeling in the message. E-mails can be deleted and there is always a reason that we missed the mail as it might have gone into spam, but wat abt n sms. Thinking a lot, I succumbed and did respond: “A frnd wudnt even need an sms 2 read other’s mind! But I do thnk u 4 counting me in n so goes my reply: sms assured tht we stand together. Cheers!!” Also, I did not forward the message to any and broke the chain reaction.

I humbly accept the fact that these sms-es don’t make me happy at all, where I am made a scapegoat to compulsively reply n that too in a good and casual gesture. And this very premise appears little hollow if we are talking of emotions. Where is the feeling if we are doing it for the reasoning stated? The issue is my left and right brains keep on fighting constantly with each other; one which understands the feelings of others wants to respond and the other one rubbishes the very fact and demands a practical, ‘hold your fort’ kind of approach. I don’t know the feeling with which it was sent to me by the friend but personally, I still feel that these kinds of messages can be done without. In appreciating someone’s effort or feeling (when asked) we sometimes compromise with self. Is this right or wrong nobody cares. I know one thing that these sms-es force me to part away from real me most of the time and the fear of ‘what he / she must be feeling’ lingers if I don’t reply.

My Nokia model saves limited messages. A few days later, this big message from my dear friend will definitely be assassinated to make room for a new similar one… the 360° theory will come to haunt me and I will try to be myself again; though suspect that I will be failing unflinchingly in the very second moment. This is purely emotional blackmail.