One of the most intriguing things in the modern cities is the price of the land. In Delhi for example, the price of the land could be as high as Rs 250,000 (US$ 600) per square feet in the posh residential area and even many times more in a commercial area. The land prices may be thousands of time lesser in smaller cities in India and many hundred thousand times lesser in rural India. You can perhaps buy a village in the same price which is needed to buy only few hundred square feet of land in Delhi.

We often wonder why the land prices are so high in Delhi or in other metros like Mumbai, Tokyo, London, New York etc. The economists would like to answer this question by resorting to the demand and supply theory which states that if the demand is high but the supply is low, the prices rise while the prices crash in case of low demand and more supply.

But why there is so much demand for a particular piece of Earth while there is so much Earth is available just few miles from the prime property.

The Value of Land

It is evident that people do not merely buy land, which anyway remains same all over the world, but they buy a number of things with the land whose price is included in the property. One of the prime acquisitions with the land is the company of the people who lives in the surrounding areas. If the people living around are rich, the price is bound to be high. You also buy a number of things like power supply, law and order, proximity to the prime restaurants, offices, market, hotels, roads etc along with the property. Therefore, when you are buying a piece of land in a city, you are actually buying the whole of the city along with its infrastructure, culture, people etc.

Can you imagine, if you wish to create the same facilities, infrastructure or culture in a isolated place? It would surely cost millions of time more.

The Importance of Friend

Just like you get all infrastructures free when you buy a piece of land, you also happen to get many things free when you make a friendship. A friend has the same impact on the mind of the person as the city has on the physical comfort of the person. Emily Dickinson, therefore, said

"My friends are my estate."

Imagine going to a place, where you do not have any friend and everyone there is your enemy. You would perhaps not like to stay there even if you are paid to live there. Is it not true that people would not like to go to prison or in a enemy country even if all comforts are made available there.

A friend, like a piece of land, carries with him all his culture and values. If you make him friend, his mind start influencing your mind and gradually it changes so as to develop a synergy with the mind of the friend. Gradually, you find that you have acquired many traits of your friend without any effort on your parts. It is for this reason that it is said, “A Man is known by the company he keeps”.

There is not human being who is more unfortunate than a person who has evil friends. In the words of Buddha

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.

Value of a Friend

The value of a friend must be ascertained in the same way as the value of a piece of land is ascertained. The company of the friend can be a great indicator of the value of the friend. If a person lives in a bad company, it is almost impossible for him to be good, just like no land can become a prime land, if the neighboring land is sold at cheap price.

Other important indicator of value is the values, knowledge and education of the person which are like the infrastructures which are created over many years. The culture of the person often plays extremely important roles in shaping the value of the person. Education too gives an indication of the mind of the person, since during education; a person spends many years in the company of the people.

If a person is truly happay and lead a peaceful life, rest assured that he has at least a good friend though most of the people remain unaware of this vital fact.  Charles Caleb Colton wisely said,

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.

A Valuable Friend is an Asset

A good friend is, therefore, an asset whose value is known only with the passage of time. No man has ever risen in this world without the company of valuable friends. It is for this reason that one must chose his friends quite carefully who can complement his needs and help him in achieving a valuable life.  If one is not careful in selection of his friends he may say one day, "God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself."