The Art of Friendship
A one-day workshop · online · ₹999
12th September 2026, 9:30–16:30 IST
There are friendships of utility: we’re useful to each other. Friendships of pleasure: we have fun together. And then the rare, third kind, the one Aristotle spent two books on: where two people are committed to what’s truly good in each other.
Most of us have plenty of the first two. And a quiet ache for the third.
Here’s what every tradition eventually discovered about that third kind: it starts at home. Your friendships can’t go deeper than the one you have with yourself. Not because of some cosmic rule; because you are the common instrument in all of them. The distance you keep from your own hurt is the distance you’ll keep from a friend’s. The voice you use on yourself is the voice that leaks into the room.
So this day works in that order.
The morning: friendship with yourself
You’ll meet your own inner household: the parts of you that protect, criticize, and hurt. Most of us run this household like a bad manager: ignore the quiet ones, shout at the underperformers, exile anyone embarrassing.
We practice the other way: being with your parts as a friend rather than as a manager. Slowly, concretely, in the body: not as ideas about yourself, but as actual visits.
The afternoon: friendship with others
Then we turn outward, and use the room itself. What it’s like to be met without being managed. What closeness actually costs, and why the cost is the point. What happens when you speak about someone you love - and then about yourself - and hear whether it’s the same voice.
You’ll be in company the whole day: six to eight people, small enough that nobody disappears.
Nothing to perform. Nothing to fix. Nothing you’ll be made to share before you’re ready.
Who this is for
People who want more from their friendships - more depth, more contact, more honesty - and who suspect the way in isn’t a technique for handling other people.
You don’t need experience with this kind of work. You need a free day, a quiet room to sit in, and some willingness to be curious about yourself.
How to join
Register below and we’ll set up a short conversation: partly for your questions, partly so we can both feel whether this is a fit. Everything practical is in the form.