Dale Carnegie's Second Avatar

Dale Carnegie wrote a seminal book called “How to Win Friends and Influence people”. This was a book which I read in my teens. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn anything from that but the powers above decided to give me another chance at improving my chances at winning friends and influencing people. No, not by reading the book again but allowing me to live with the second avatar of Dale!

Let me explain. I am talking about Deepika Sangwan. She didn’t write a book but showed me through demonstration what winning and keeping friends is like. It was last Saturday afternoon, when she had driven to Gurgaon for a lunch party, a distance of about 15 km. She got back home about 5.30 and immediately was on a meeting on Zoom. She finished that meeting at about 7.30 pm and then finally saw her messages.

One of those messages was from an ex work colleague/friend who had moved stateside about 20 years ago. He was in India for that afternoon/evening and he would have to leave for the airport from his hotel in Aerocity latest at 9 pm to catch his flight. She asked me for my advice and I just guffawed my disbelief that she would even consider that. If she left immediately she would have a chance to meet him for about half an hour, but she had to get ready so she would even have less than 30 minutes. I suggested she call him on the phone and talk to him on video call. But she is made of sterner stuff as well as caring stuff. She took a chance on meeting him, and made it to Aerocity (a distance of about 15 km) to see him for about 20 minutes. Oh, I forgot to add that we were invited to a party the same evening, which she made at about 10.15 pm!

So that is what making friends is about -? to make sure that your friend who stays half the earth away gets to see you, even if only for about 20 minutes. That ensures your friend will also do the same for you!

?