Whether one likes it or not, one cannot do without neighbours. Even where houses are isolated as in the case of bungalows there is inevitably the neighbour. Normally one may think one can do without neighbours 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 neighbour may offer will have great humanizing influence. To share one's view and sometimes even one’s sorrows one needs some neighbours. Because man is gregarious he cannot live in isolation.
But all neighbours 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 neighbour 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 neighbour’s son may pick a flower or a fruit from your garden. 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 neighbour’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 neighbourliness some understanding between the neighbours is important. Small differences can be easily patched up or ironed out. Care can at times play the good Samaritan and helps the neighbours in a small or big way. Nobody is perfect and it is better not to speak disparagingly of your neighbour.
A cheerful word or a nod or a casual inquiry will strengthen the feeling of good neighbourliness. Negatively, one must not fray into what the neighbours is or does.
Tolstoy speaks in one of his stories how neighbours should behave. A child was wearing a new shirt and the neighbour’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 neighbours must be quick to forget small wrongs done
Neighbourliness is not only for individuals but it is important also in a great measure between neighbouring countries. History has got a lot to teach in this respect. Unless countries learn to live as good neighbours, there cannot be peace on earth. So children must be taught at home and in the school to cooperate with the neighbours 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.
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