"...don't ever speak to me if you can't even do this much for me...!"

"...don't ever speak to me if you can't even do this much for me...!"

...he said, nearly in tears. Lets call him Luigi. 

Luigi was a nice chap in my school, coming from a very well-mannered lower middle class family. He stayed near the school in a small one-room house.

Somewhere in the 7th grade, Luigi made a good friend. Let's call him Mario. They became best friends. Inseparable. Mario came from a good family - in terms of values and wealth.

Mario, being Mario, always spent generously on his friends. It goes without saying, Luigi was the most pampered and spoilt. He often took him to fancy restaurants, bought him a lot of stuff - a nice bi-cycle, a disc man, music cassettes/discs etc.

They always played after school in Luigi's compound. Cricket was their favorite sport. One week in the monsoon, it rained a lot. Mario & Luigi were sitting at Luigi's house. Mysterious girl, by Peter Andre played in the background (on speakers bought by Mario for Luigi). "I hate the rains! We can't go out! Let's buy a TV video game. Nintendo is nice!" suggested Luigi. Mario obliged and bought a Nintendo. The 64 in 1 game cartridge had 64 awesome games. I don't think anyone from my generation has not played on it - Super Mario Bros being everyone's favorite. Weeks passed and Luigi demanded Mario buy more cartridges. "The 299 in 1 has awesome games, including some great variants of Contra (another game)". Mario kept fulfilling all of his dear friend's wishes. However, he was starting to realise that his good friend was beginning to act entitled. 

"This new video game console from Sony has come. Much better than Nintendo. You gotta buy me that. We will both  have so much fun playing it!" Luigi declared. Mario had endured enough of his demands by now. He refused. Luigi kept pleading but Mario did not budge. That's when Luigi said what I quoted above. 

Over the following months, the friendship fell apart. Mario felt Luigi was more interested in his money and not in his friendship. Luigi felt Mario was being arrogant by not spending on things he wanted. He had so much pocket money that he had no use of, he thought. One may think poorly of Luigi here, but he was a victim of his own circumstances. Coming from a modest family, he was not exposed to all the luxury that had started to come his way, making him addicted to it all. 

Yesterday evening, I passed by Luigi's house and the school while I was driving down somewhere with the family. Remembering Mario and Luigi's friendship I Whatsapped Mario - "Are you still in touch with Luigi? Any idea where he is?" The reply came quickly - "👎"

All of us have friends, family, colleagues & mentors who are resourceful. Not necessarily in terms of money, but also in terms of time, wisdom and compassion. However, knowingly or unknowingly, if we start leeching on the resources they have to offer, they are sure to withdraw themselves & their resources from us at some point in time.

Let's not be a leech. Let's not get leeched either.