The legend of Anna Banana

This is a true story. The story of Anna Banana. No that's *not* her real name, dummy. I cant use her real name now can I ? Coz if I do, a whole bunch of you retards will google her down and the rest of you, out of love for me, might spam her Orkut profile senseless. So lets call her Anna Banana for now. Why this name? Coz I'll never have a friend who I can call Anna banana, even if I keep the faith! That's why. (Laughing at my own subtle joke. I'd be impressed if any of you got it.)

It was the year 1992 and lil Veda had just started kindergarten. All she remembers of that miserable day was crying her lungs out to her mommy who almost ditched her there. The days that followed were pretty similar. Until she met Anna banana. They hit it off pretty well and stuck together all the way to third grade. (End of narration. Story continues in first person).


We learnt our alphabets together and our rhymes. We were both part of our class dance and class play. She would come over to my house and we would play for hours with our Barbies and when I went to hers, we would watch Free Willy over and over again. She taught me lessons that even my big brother missed out on. Like when she pointed out to me that not every tooth fairy was as cheap as mine. While mine gave me a rupee a tooth, hers gave her ten.

Days went by in the small school and Anna Banana and me were inseparable. She was my BFF! Nothing was going to change that. Well, nothing except her having to move to Africa. Yup! Hindi movie ish-tyle, the heroine of this story had to move to another continent altogether. Tears, hugs, promises to write every day followed.

But promises are never kept. One of my early lessons in life. She did not write for ages, and when she finally did, I did not reply. New friends and new dolls kept me occupied.

Fast forward.

Two years back, out of sheer joblessness, I searched for Anna banana on Orkut. And *tadaa* there she was. Until that point Anna banana was only an almost-mythical figure. All I had of her were patches of good memories and a very old photograph. And I had never again elevated anyone to the post of *BFF*, so that had always kept Anna Bananas memory special. But now, she wasn't just a memory or part of childhood stories told to me. She was a real person. As real as virtually real gets.

Gulping down water, shaking my head in disbelief, smiling broadly, I send her a message. In less than a few hours I get a super excited reply. The very next day we spoke on the phone and that night we had a long nice chat.

How cool would it be if I told you now that we got back in touch and we remain best friends to this day? It would make for a beautiful movie-like story.

But this is a true story, remember? So it has to be real and not reel. So yeah, we spoke and I realized what a conceited bi*ch she was and how we would never gel.

And just like that, after one conversation, my mythical perfect Anna Banana, childhood playmate, Best Friend Forever, lost all her magic & luster and is special no more.