Cupid & Co., vs The Unsinkable Ship

Friendship or Love?

II MA English Class fights it out!

Debate Hour

So who won in the end? Read on… to find it out 😊

Sharan, their Class Rep tossed the coin! The Unsinkables won the toss, and elected to give the first knock.

Joanna launched their fiery attack on behalf of the Unsinkables!

Quoting from the Friends show, she said,

‘Boyfriends and Girlfriends are gonna come and go, but this is for Life,’ emphasizing the importance of friendship in a person’s life.

Sneha, launched the Cupid & Co., attack, saying, ‘That particular show itself is centered around Friendship, and hence the emphasis on friendship. I feel that, love is the basis of any friendship’.

Kevin, for Unsinkables, said – ‘If you cannot be friends with the person you love, then that relationship will never last’.

Benita, adding to Kevin’s views, said, ‘Friendship is unfettered and without boundaries, while love has lots of boundaries and restrictions!’.

Beera, for Cupid & Co., responded, saying, from womb to the tomb we receive various kinds of love, in every occasion of our life. Hence love is an essential part of our entire life, and it gets priority over friendship.

Tamil Mani, for Unsinkables, said, ‘Friends will accept every single part of you. But circumstances will affect love’.

Teresa for Cupid & Co, remarked, ‘It’s not right. You say that friends correct our mistakes, and accept all our mistakes and still they’re friends with us. But don’t you think our parents also accept all our mistakes.  

Joanna for Unsinkables, retorted, ‘Do parents really understand what we really want?

A love relationship has a lot of requirements and commitments. Even if you miss a call, you’re in soup. But in friendship, it’s the other way round. Even if you don’t talk to each other for months, still you strike the same warmth and the same bonds!

Beera for Cupid & Co., said, ‘In love there’s understanding. We normally don’t share everything with our friends, the way we do with our parents’.

Sneha for Unsinkables, said, ‘In friendship we have the freedom to share everything, but in love we can’t’.

Shruti for Cupid & Co., said, ‘Not every relationship is restricting. In love, you have a ‘sense of belonging’, which you don’t normally get in friendship.

Abhishek, rooting for love, supporting Cupid & Co., said, ‘Family is a unit made of love, and it’s our priority. Not friendship’.

Sneka, for Unsinkables, said – Love is a filtered relationship filled with lots of responsibilities. However, friendship is unfiltered relationship, which doesn’t force any responsibilities on you.

Kevin, adding ammo to Unsinkables, said, ‘If I’m hungry, and go to my friend’s house even at 12 midnight, his mom will cheerfully give me food, and care for me. That’s the power of friendship’.

Sneha, for Cupid & Co., said, ‘I don’t agree with Joanna. I confide everything with my parents. I don’t hide anything from them. To me, friendship is platonic love.

Diya, for Unsinkables, quoting Friedrich Nietzsche, said, ‘It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages’.

Joel, for Cupid & Co., said, ‘The topic for debate is highly subjective, and hence we cannot generalize based on specific instances. We can’t necessarily say that ‘love has boundaries’. By showing your love to your neighbour, you can break those boundaries.

Cos Love has no boundaries!

Sneha for Cupid & Co., added to say, ‘Why are there so many love songs, rom-coms, and why do people want to be in love? Why do they whine when they’re single? Of course, you have fun with friendship, but at the end of the day, to whom do you go home to? NOT to your friend, but to your family, who love you.

Love is a covenant for life.

Vinaya for Cupid & Co., said, ‘I just want to add to Sneha’s points. Back at home, I’ve seen my parents fighting their hardships and battles all by themselves, both of them together, without any help from friends. That doesn’t mean they don’t have friends. But together, in the bonds of love, they fight all their hardships together. So I feel that, in the later part of one’s life, it’s not friendship but love that matters the most! Friends may come and go like guests, but love lingers on forever!

Now Joanna launched the next missile for the Unsinkables, saying, ‘Now, why do you think there’s so much hype for love? Cos only when you don’t have something, it’s hyped. Movies idealise love, but behind every sad person, there’s a friend who supports you in your failure.

The whole world celebrates friendship, but Valentine’s Day is only for lovers, and it’s a convenient strategy to market their ‘love-related commodities’ and thereby improve their sales.

However, there’s no propaganda needed for friendship. For emergencies, friends are always there for us!

Diya, adding ammo for Unsinkables, said, ‘Cadburys came up with their Valentine’s Day special ad, which says, ‘‘how far will you go for love’. Yes! Love is limited edition. It ends in February itself. But friendship goes on and on!

Sneha for Cupid & Co., said, ‘Romantic Love is so strong. There’s a physical celebration of love as well. It’s so natural and it’s in our genes as well’.

Kevin, speaking for Unsinkables, said, ‘If so, why do so many divorces happen? That means the only focus in romantic love is to create children! Statistics say that 50% of marriages end up in divorce.

Snigdha for Unsinkables, added to say, ‘Once we are married, the feeling is new. Love is new. But soon it vanishes, as days go by. Only friendship lasts forever. She also quoted from Aldous Huxley's Essay "Sermons in Cats" to support her views.

Beera for Cupid & Co., said, ‘If the feeling vanishes after a particular point of time, then, that feeling is not love. You just thought it was love.

In the Animal Kingdom, among the wolves especially, even if a partner dies, the other may become depressed and stop eating.

Benita, for Unsinkables, said, quoting Shakespeare, ‘Desire dies, the moment it’s fully satisfied’.

Sneha gave a rhetorical tat, saying, ‘The same Shakespeare wrote 158 sonnets for LOVE, not for Friendship!’. She also cited an incident when a mother and child were almost buried under debris, and the mother risked her life to save her child.

Kevin for Unsinkables, responded saying, ‘It’s just about adrenalin rush. Not necessarily mother’s urge to protect her child. Anyone there would have done it!’.

Hari for Cupid & Co., said – We are made of love, and created in such a way that, after a particular age, we bond with a person, for the simple reason that the human race should continue to thrive and exist!

Harini, for Cupid & Co., said, ‘It’s not about getting a person. It’s about partnering with a person. In love, it’s not about possession. It’s about partnering with another person, and treating them as equal!

Moderator’s Remarks: Well, the debate went on and on, but for paucity of time, the moderator had to cut it short for the day. Students were at their creative best, sharing healthy vibes even while giving rejoinders to their counterparts from the opposing side!

To sum it up –

A gentle tit for a rhetorical tat!

That’s the Friendship vs Love debate for us, at the QSC Building today, dear Ladies and Gentlemen!