Four hours in

The test for this room is whether six people can shout a song badly out of tune and it still works. That rules out most of what gets called a friendship song. Anything about a girl instead of the group is out. Anything one person performs at a wedding is out. What is left is a surprisingly specific register that Hindi film music has been producing since Sholay - a chorus everybody already knows, and a lyric about the people you actually came with.

Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge is the oldest thing here and still the one the table reaches for. R. D. Burman composed it, Anand Bakshi wrote it, and Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey sang it while Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan messed about on a motorcycle in 1975. The other anchor is younger and non-film: Yaaron, off KK's debut solo album Pal in 1999, composed by Lesle Lewis with words by Mehboob. Two generations of Indian farewells have been conducted to that song, and KK is gone, which has not made it quieter.

Then there is the Dev.D one, which has the best story of the lot. Emosanal Attyachar is credited on every service to Band Master Rangeela and Rasila. There is no such band. Anurag Kashyap wanted it done as a brass wedding band, and the two men caricaturing their voices on the record are the composer Amit Trivedi and the lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, who only admitted it years later. Ask a bar to sing along to it and nobody will care who sang it, which is rather the point.

The rest is the hostel, the ground and the road: Give Me Some Sunshine, written by Swanand Kirkire and composed by Shantanu Moitra for 3 Idiots; Apna Time Aayega, made by DIVINE and Dub Sharma and sung by Ranveer Singh; Ilahi, Socha Hai, Dil Chahta Hai, Woh Din. Keep Chitthi Aayi Hai and Woh Kagaz Ki Kashti for last if you want the table to go quiet, because they will. Friendship Day is the first Sunday of August and this page does not change for it - the songs were already right.