Our neighbors Living next to next is the principle of a neighbor. Good neighborliness is the ideal to be aimed at and pursued.

People live in the same neighborhood for many reasons. Sometimes it may be aesthetic and very often convenience. It may be the nearness to one's office of work, school, traffic centers and so on. As the saying goes, no man is an island; he has to live with his neighbors. To make life tolerable and bearable one must cooperate with one's neighbor.One's neighbor may be temporary as in the case of traveling by bus or train. Here the neighbor is with one for a few minutes or few hours. Even here if there is understanding between the neighbors the travel will be pleasant. Good neigborliness generates good company and especially during travel it helps to take away the boredom. There are cases when such travel has culminated in longstanding friendship. Whether one likes it or not, one cannot do without neighbors. Even where houses are isolated as in the case of bungalows there is inevitably the neighbor. Normally one may think one can do without neighbors because one can command all comforts and services, so the services or the need for a friend may not arise. However serviceable the radio or the TV may be in providing the recreation, they cannot supply the human elements. The sympathy, the admiration and the appreciation which a neighbor may offer will have a great humanizing influence. To share one's view and sometimes even one's sorrows one needs some neighbors. Because man is gregarious he cannot live in isolation. But all neighbors are not always keeping the cordial relationship. Stresses and strains develop because of misunderstandings. The cause may be very trivial or flimsy, still tension develops ending in animosity and feud. Jealousy may be

another cause for such a tension. The neighbor may be doing fine, has earned a lot of money, his children are doing well, he gets quick promotions, these and such others may create jealousy. Once this is generated, this leads to non cooperation and petty quarrels. Very often children may be the cause for strained feelings. Children may quarrel drawing the elders into the fray. The neighbor's son may pick a flower or a fruit from your garden and an argument may erupt. Again he may throw his ball at your window pane damaging it. These are not unnatural so far as the younger one is concerned but it is for the elders to view at them with equanimity and make up for it. This may read easy on paper but not so in practical life. But with some broad outlook one must be able to tolerate. Another reason for tension may be the animals. Your neighbor's dog may be a real nuisance or his poultry which would come into your garden and eat away the young saplings. In all these cases to keep up good neighborliness some understanding between the neighbors is important. Small differences can be easily patched up or ironed out. Care can at times play the good samaritan and helps the neighbors in a small or big way. Nobody is perfect and it is better not to speak disparagingly of your neighbor. A cheerful word or a nod or a casual enquiry will strengthen the feeling of good neighborliness. Negatively, one must not pry into what the neighbor is or what he does. Tolstoy speaks in one of his stories how neighbors should behave. A child was wearing a new shirt and the neighbor's child threw mud on it and thus spoiled it. Women folk started the quarrel and men folk entered into the fray ending in a few heads broken and so on. By then the children forgot all their quarrel and were playing. Tolstoy draws a moral from the story namely neighbors must be quick to forget small wrongs done. Neighborliness is not only for individuals but it is important also

in a great measure between neighboring countries. History has got a lot to teach in this respect. Unless countries learn to live as good neighbors, there cannot be peace on earth. So children must be taught at home and in the school to cooperate with the neighbors and be friendly with them. The basic principle is to give and take and to develop a sense that the other man has as much right as you have and some degree of tolerance is very necessary.