True Friend

In Malayalam, we have a proverb:  "chengathi nannayal kannadi venda" (i.e., if your friend is good, then you don't need to look at the mirror).  I understand its meaning in more depth now.  However, it is an old proverb, and it is the modern times now.  Hence, I would like to add more to it.  For, there are different types of mirrors now.
A true friend
1. should act as a magnification lens (convex) for you to help see distances unknown to you; helps you to grow more, warns you about the pitfalls on your path and helps you guard yourself,
2. should act as a diminishing  lens (concave) for you against others' blames and scorns at you; insulates you from the pains of the world, by helping you not knowing what you don't need to, and
3. should act as a plain, clean and unbiased mirror so that you can look at it and know more of you, what you are, where you are, including your qualities as well as your limitations.
Besides, a friend should support you in all your deeds, always, at the same time warning you against wrong moves and actions.
I hope my true friends will warn me when I act without reason, boast of myself in any ways, claim myself great and knowledgeable, and against my cupidity, unjustifiable desires and arrogance. I also hope that they will support me in my constructive biases, attitudes and arguments towards life, without which a life is never a life at all.

--Sandeep Palakkal