Her Best Friend

Let me tell you a story. The story of a poor princess and her best friend. The twist in the tale lies in the fact that this friend was a frog. So what? We have seen humans and animals bond before haven't we? These two were the best of friends. Here is how the story goes.

'You go on carrying your daily work with no idea of the future to come. You live your life the way you have led it for the past thousand years. And then a frog comes. He lights your way up. You start appreciating the good things in life. This friend becomes your best friend. You start depending on this frog. But then the dependence keeps on increasing and you start taking things a bit too personally. You forget that he is just a little frog and you begin ascribing human attributes to him. You start reacting vulnerably to his light spirited hops and jumps.

And all this keeps on increasing the distance between you two. I dunno whether he simply starts taking her for granted or he fails to understand why she behaves like this. He is a freedom craving frog and you can never keep him in a cage. But what about this fear..this fear of losing him..that may be he will jump away so far that you will not be able to reach out to him..he will grow so distant that your voice won't reach him?

One of my friends used to say, "You can never keep with you what is never yours". She was true. But our princess didn't know that. She began to write poems and pieces for him and never showed or read them to him, thinking only about him, dreaming of him- was it more than just friendship? Yes it was. Dammit, a frog can't read. Hell it probably doesn't even feel like a human being. But our princess was too blind to see that. He was her best friend. He brought her happiness. Best friends share everything. Don't they?

But her definition of friendship did not necessarily match with his idea of the same. The way she carried on her sense of reality did not necessarily match with his. And invariably it happened. Her dream broke. It was a fairy tale, guess it had to be over someday. There was no "happily ever after". Her frog, her charming little prince did not kiss her and make her a princess. All of you know this part of the story. There is nothing new in here. But what hurt her the most? His inability to love her?

No, it was his inability to maintain their friendship. It was his inability to give her the same respect as she did to him. He was not replaceable to her. He was her best friend. But she was replaceable to him. And it was this indifference that hurt her the most. She did not expect him to kiss her. But she did expect him to be her friend, to be by her side, to care for her. He didn't. He failed. She was committed to their friendship. He was not.

But I guess you cannot blame him for it, can you? My friend says, friendship like love cannot be one-sided. It has to be both ways. And if it isn't, well then it isn't friendship. So with a heavy heart, our Cinderella had to forget about her best friend. One day she held him lightly. He did not even take a second look but jumped away. Escaped through the window. Our Cinderella felt that may be she was stifling him all these days. I doubt if the frog had any feelings at all though. But with a heavy heart, our Cinderella threw him a flying kiss. But by then he had gone afar. He never looked back.

Our Cinderella was sad for many days. She contemplated not living as life without her best friend, without her frog,meant nothing to her. But time heals every wound. Our Cinderella recovered, she healed. She found happy kids who made her realize that the sun smiled down on her. But at nights she used to cry for her frog. Till suddenly one day, she realized that her feelings for her dear little frog had gone away.

The realization hit her like hard cold ice. She felt at peace but felt a strange coldness in herself. She tried to search for love, for friendship deep within her heart. But all those feelings had left her with her frog. That part of her heart had been numbed forever. Cinderella realized that she would never be able to love again, she would never be able to feel for anyone ever again. Her frog had taken her warmth along with him. '

And thus ends our not-so-happy fairy tale. I know it does not have a happy ending, but ah well, what did ya expect? It was not out of a Disney movie anyway. ;)