Relationships are a great blessing. There is no substitute for them and every relationship has its own beauty. No amount of words are enough to describe the beauty of a parental relationship. A mother cares for her child, nurturing it and keeping it safe when it cannot do anything for itself. She stays awake for countless nights when her child can’t sleep.

A mother understands our broken words in childhood that no one else understands, she takes care of us all day long, she cooks delicious food for us and dedicates her whole life to us. In short, a home where there is a mother is heaven.

But, there is no doubt that a father is no less important and special than a mother. Since the news of the arrival of a baby comes, the father becomes worried about the future of the child and starts making plans and arrangements for his or her good future. The father is the protector of the whole house, he is the driving force running the whole family. A father always gives good advice to his children, and his rebuke is for our own benefit. He sacrifices his desires for the sake of his children.

The love between a father and daughter is very precious, since he is ready to endure every affliction and every sorrow for his daughter. He always tries his best to fulfil his daughter’s wish. Truly, no one can take the place of parents and the relationship between a parent and child is the strongest that there can be.

However, when it comes to the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, I can give one word for it, and that is ‘sweet’. The presence of grandparents makes the whole house shine, they save us from the scoldings of our parents, they support us, always pray for us, and often times, hide our blunders. They also tell us stories of our parents and their childhood.

Based on their great experience, they guide us and, believe me, the knowledge that we get from their guidance is so unique that we cannot even get it from books. Grandparents become very happy at our little achievements and very proudly tell everyone about it, they also help in convincing our parents to fulfil our wishes.

When talking of relationships, how can we skip mentioning siblings? Siblings’ relationship is one of its kind; the most different and special. They fight one moment and the next they are ready to protect each other from anything and everything. They quickly for forget and forgive, acting as if nothing had happened.

They are our biggest confidante and also the ones complaining the most about us. Brothers tease their sisters a lot, but they can never see them upset. In fact, the elder sister is given the status of a mother because, in the absence of mother, she supervises younger siblings and takes care of them. Sisters are usually each other’s best friends, they share their clothes, jewellery, shoes, secrets and everything with each other. It is not wrong to say that a sister always understands things that parents don’t understand.

Sisters express their love to their siblings, but usually brothers don’t do that so openly, even though their love for their siblings is as deep. A sibling can’t hear a word against other siblings and are always ready to back them and pull them out of any trouble.

A lot is said about friends and the different kinds of relationships we have with them. But I think enough can never be said about the different kinds of friendships because there are so many people who become our friends throughout our life and with each of them we have a different relationship. Good friends are like a pillow, they are there for us to hug when we are sad or put our head on and cry. A good friend always comes to our aid in difficult times, prevents us from straying on the wrong path, fills our life with beautiful memories, makes us laugh when we are sad; and if someone is an only child, a good friend fills the void of a sibling.

Another fulfilling and wonderful relationship in our life comes in the shape of uncles and aunts. They are not our parents, but they are ever present and ever guiding, fulfilling the roles of parents without the strictness shown by parents. Many of our uncles and aunts can be our grownup friends whom we can share and tell a lot of things that we can’t to other elders. They then provide us with guidance, keeping our best interest in mind. Often our uncles and aunts can be closer to our age and be more like cousins and friends.

People whom God has blessed with all these beautiful relationships are the luckiest people on earth. We should value all the relations in our life and give them their due respect. If someone is angry with you, take steps to resolve the issue with them, because every relationship is like a pearl, if it falls, you have to bend down to pick it up.

Life is very short that should not be wasted in fighting with each other or holding grudges. Useless we remove hatred from our hearts we will not be able to live together with love and harmony. We should not hesitate to express our love and gratitude to our loved ones, because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.

Cherish every relationship in life, each has its own sweet flavour that is unique.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 11th, 2021