Is friendship -simple friendship possible between a man and a woman?

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Fiendship ( not necessarily a too close friendly relationship )bewteen a man and a woman is either difficult or unbelievable for the soicety .Either other emotion comes in or the society things something fishy is there . This is particualarly true in my society in India . My recent bitter experience is one in which one of my best friends (say X)telephoned to my wife to inform that I had a relationship with one of our common collegue( say Y) .I wondered why he interpreted our friendship as love or something like that .Because we (Y and I )seldom talked and our contact was confined to some intermitant SMS and short phone talks only .Afterwards, of course,I discovered that he had a untoward preference for Y and perhaps for that reason Y expressed her dislike for X . Thus their friendship broke and X silently felt some jealousy towards me for having friendship with Y. The result was nothing but abrupt breakdown of my friendship with Y . Of course I also had severed my friendhip with X .My wife would not tolerate any contact between me and Y and also between me and X.And I have accustomed myself to this new situation .My loss is that Y as well as X by dint of their studiousness vis-a vis my lack of studies made up the gap of my entertaining knowledge which I have lost . Now my question on the basis of my experience is:1. is friendship between a man and woman possible? 2.Why the society does not allow it? 3. Is such a social sanction prevalent i your society ? My question on the basis of