Sometimes we mistake a person for someone else. Has it happened? It can be quite embarrasing and humourous as well.
I recently chanced to meet a friend in Calicut, whom I have'nt met in 12 years. However, my friend looks the same, even weighs the same (or so it appears) and smiles the charming same. My friend shook my hand and said, 'It's good to see you after so many years. How are you?' and we exchange endless pleasantaries and my friend enquired, 'So, when did you arrive from Mumbai?' And I was rather suprised. 'Mumbai, no I came from Trivandrum' . With a puzzled look my friend said, 'So, you are not Tanuja?' and I said, No, Iam Aruna'. My other friends were giggling and laughing away. My friend was both shocked and excited to know who I really was. It was a wonderful revelation and reunion. Those were Kodak moments!
I remember when my son was in 5th standard in Kuwait, I took him to a school which was the venue for violin competition in which he was participating and I met this look alike of someone I know very well and walked up to that person and wished her and she wished me back and we were talking about the competiton and we both sensed a bit of wierdness and then she asked me, if she knew me....and thats when it struck me, its a look alike of a person I knew. But we had a nice laugh though.
Once a child came up to me, saying 'Amma' and I turned around and I think I scared the child as it gave out a squeal when she found out, I am a total stranger and not her mother. I felt like giving out a squeal too.
It was 2004. My friend was walking hand in hand with her husband in an exhibition ground amidst a huge crowd. After a while she turned around to talk to her husband and found herself holding on to the hand of a total stranger, in the crowd, to her horror. She left the stranger's hand and practically ran from there, and frantically searched for her husband. He found her first and held her hand to which she jumped thinking it is yet another stranger. She expressed to me how relieved and joyous she was to find her husband. They still hold hands while they walk, but tighter!
Last year when I was travelling by Sri Lankan Airlines from Kuwait to Trivandrum, there was this husband and wife in the next row. The man was delighted with the number of drinks being served and he seemed to be constantly quenching his desire to drink. He finally looked a bit disoriented. He dragged himself to the toilet and as he returned, he sat next to a beautiful, lone lady, 2 seats away from his wife and the lone lady screamed at him in vain, as he had plunged into deep sleep. The stewards shifted him to his rightful seat and as he snored in his sleep, quite oblivious to his actions, his dear wife shifted her hang luggage and sat elsewhere.
I used to teach two boys, who were twins, and by God they were such perfect look alikes. I never knew who was who. They always had to correct me when I addressed their names. Their mother taught me to differentiate them by their character. One was a bit hyper and the other very quiet. The hyper one was talkative and the quiet one would speak far less.
Mistaken identities...can be funny, shocking and sometimes embarrasing.
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