Friendship Day is here! Celebrate your friends!

And don't miss your chance to become part of Femina's Band Of Friends.

Sure, some friendships need no nurturing. But why leave it to chance? If friendships are what make our lives worth living - beyond the men, the kids and the chocolate - should we not celebrate them more often?

And often, they're better for health than men and chocolate!

Swing Into The Sisterhood

• Take a class together. Art courses make for perfect, no-stress bonding time. Cookery classes are a great way to be together too.

• Give each other a friendship badge.No, not those ones with little messages - just little smiley faces!

• Cook together. You make the pasta, let Aditi make the dessert, Shruti the salad...

• Volunteer together. Find an old age home or an orphanage that needs help on the weekends and spend two hours there. Working with your friends will help you overcome the feeling of inadequacy you may experience at first, and the sadness that is an inevitable part of visiting the largely abandoned elderly.

• Make a friendship patchwork quilt together. It's easier than you think. Divide squares of fabric equally among you - decide whether you will fabric paint, embroider or appliqué, and then cobble them together on some fabric backing. When you're done, make another one, then another, till all of you have an unique friendship quilt. If that's too much work, make a collage of photographs and pin it up. Make it a roving exhibit - today in your house, next week in Sakshi's...

• Hug, don't air kiss.

Leave that to the Page Three posers.

• Remember those autograph books you had in school - with meaningless notes from people you now can't put faces to? Go way better with your real friends - build a friendship album with photographs of your best buds and quotes and ticket Write each other love letters - as with our family, we rarely actually tell our friends how much they mean to us.

• Give each other friendship bracelets. Don't know how to make 'em? Ask your kids or little nieces!

• Have a sleepover. Who said that's only for little kids?

• Create a website with your friends. Password-protect it and leave messages only all of you can read.

• Design a team T-shirt, or get mugs printed alike for each one of the gang. Another fun idea from our fashion department - dip one hand in fabric paint, and stamp it onto a self-coloured shirt. Let each of your palm prints work itself into a creative design... Make one for each of you.

• Go on an indulgence trip together -shopping (set yourselves budgets), spa hopping, movie and dinner...

• The Femina gang is one of friends. Once a year, we go on a picnic. The last overnight one was great for bonding in the dark (no electricity at our chosen forest resthouse!), singing old Hindi songs, and fighting off mosquitoes together

• Use Friendship Day as an incentive to contact old friends you've lost touch with. Forget e-mail and e-cards - go out and pick up a card (the words often spare you the awkwardness of putting your emotions into words!), and then write out your feelings. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Are You A Femina Friend?

WE'RE looking to build a band of readers who will bolster each other up, help each other get through difficult times, celebrate the uniqueness of their friendship...

We will feature groups of friends in different cities, ask your opinions on different issues that concern women, encourage you to advise each other and bond as only women friends can.

If you are a part of a group of friends, write in and tell us how you met, what keeps you together and how you celebrate your sisterhood.

If you would like to be on our 'Between Friends' panel, send in your name and address, and a little about yourself.

Send us your inputs at femina@timesgroup.com, with 'Between Friends' in the subject line.

BETWEEN FRIENDS

I have a new friend I'm in two minds about. She's really helpful and always willing to take on chores I absolutely can't do and has even sat through the night with me when I'm ill. The offside? She's hyper critical - of my boyfriend, my parents, my weight. Sure, I crib about all these myself, but I don't think I like her discussing them. The few times I've tried to point out that she's out of line, she's been truly surprised and said that she never meant that way. Is she's worth keeping as a friend? I love the support, but not the fact that I never know what mean thing she'll say when next she opens her mouth...

Sameera Mehta, Goa

Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Any outrage? Write in to femina@timesgroup.com with `Between Friends - Sameera' in the subject line. Last date to send in your entry: August 15, 2004.

Friendship Quotes We Like

"A friend is one who walks in when others walk out" - Walter Winchell

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me" - Henry Ford