The Comedy Of Erring Milkmen

One incident convinced me that seeing double can be a comedy.

After draining off the last of our tea-cups—my hard-put efforts—down the sink, we all agreed that the milkman should be fired. The vote also went in favor of milk packets.

By Citizen Correspondent Lata Sony

Date Posted: 08/12/08

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House number AK-47 is one of the houses located in a posh area of Delhi leased by the company I used to work for to its outstation employees and guests from its other branches. The company calls these houses chummeries. House number AK-47 was one such chummery, which accommodated six individualistic girls. The address was actually BK-47, but its obvious nickname stuck. Six girls from completely different backgrounds living in such close proximity leads to some fireworks, which is what house number AK-47 was all about. The names of the characters other than myself have been changed to protect their privacy.

Methinks you are my glass and not my brother." - Dromio of Ephesus, in William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors

The character in question above is, of course, not a "glass" (mirror in Shakespeare's day) but the mirror image of the person speaking. If you thought such confusion over identical siblings happens only in plays or movies or showbiz of any other kind, sit up because in the real world too you may get to rub your eyes and see double. You have to believe me because I am one such sibling. And from experience, I would say that all this confusion is not much of a comedy for the siblings, more a nuisance.

However, one incident at least led me to believe that the situation could prove ticklish in real life, even without the excitement and drama of the separations and subsequent reunions that fate has a habit of bestowing on fictitious characters.

The incident happened in house number AK-47, when my sister moved in three months after I had. Possibly, she was misled by my rosy reports of hostel life. Being not the kind to see me have all the fun, she joined to give me company.

There is a good three years' difference between our ages, but the way some people react, we might as well have been twins. In the first few days after her arrival, confusion thrived in AK-47, but slowly the mix-up got restricted merely to the names. That was something I didn’t mind, because, quite often, I did that myself, call my sister by my name that is.