The wonder world of twins is truly fascinating. It is incredulous to have twins moving around, creating utter confusion in family, society or in office. The trouble about having twins is that no one claims to have done it deliberately. It is said that the tendency to have twins is inherited and that one in every 1000 pregnancies end up with the birth of twins. The fraternal type of twins do not look alike and also behave differently, while the identical twins are of same sex, appearance, reactions, strength and weaknesses. They are of great source of wonder and admiration.
I have not come across twins working in our organization. It would have been great fun if twins were really working somewhere, contributing some distraction, fun and making fool of some intelligent people. However, I remember the minor incidents and misunderstandings when my brother (who resembled me to a very great extent) was working for a short while in our head office, along with me. There used to be lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the 0ffice due to this striking similiarity between us. Many times I had to convince some of my friends that it was not me that they saw or talked to.To some infdels, I had to show my brother in person, to clear their doubts.When I was the Secretary of our Club, there used to be lot of confusion during Annual day and other celebrations, when my look alike brother was around, unwittingly defusing some knotty situations, on my behalf.
I once happened to notice one lady staff of my office in the vegetable market. Actually she was on medical leave. Even after seeing me, she pretended as if she did not notice me at all. When I questioned her at office, when she reported for duty, she said she was really sick and never visited the market at all, much to my dismay. Later she said that I might have seen her twin sister who sometimes visited the particular market. I could not believe that it could be so, until I saw both of them together in a family function, to which I was thoughtfully invited. I could not believe my eyes seeing both identical sisters together. It was a wonderful sight.
The greatest fun or nightmare I ever had was the scourge of twin names of staff of our office. So many Natarajans, Venkatararams, Joshis, Kulkarnis, Gaikwads, some of them having similar initials also. They used to be added with ‘senior’,’ Junior’ or even 1,2,3, along with their names just to segregate them.
When there was a special drive for prompt clearance of death/retirement cases, one of my enthusiastic clerk, had put up a case for approval of the Boss and kept it ready on my table even before my arrival. He told me he had come earlier and the moment he saw a telegram intimating the death of MT joshi, he got the file of MT Joshi and finalized the settlement claim and put it on my table and so that the moment I arrived it can be checked and submitted to the Boss for approval. He was so enthusiastic and the file was moving fast in the hierarchy towards the Boss. My clerk was restless about the slow pace of approval as he was on pins and needles to dispatch the papers promptly as it was a death case, requiring immediate action. The news of death spread in the office and my clerk was passing on all information. A few friends of MTJoshi left the office and rushed to the house of the deceased, only to find the smiling housewife. To some inquisitive friends, she even mentioned that MTJoshi has gone to office. Most of his friends were perplexed and were anxiously awaiting developments. It was at this juncture that the wonder world of twins appeared in front of us. Yes Mr. MTJoshi, himself, was approaching me with his famous grin. I was shocked and scared to nuts at the sight of an advancing MTJoshi. ‘Good morning..Sir..How are you..’ I did not know that I was shaking hands with MT Joshi. I was really shaken… My clerk was pale with terror. It was the same MTJoshi….Same and everything same.. Joshi….except that he was alive. The moment he left us wondering, the clerk rushed to the room of Boss to retrieve the file. The telegram intimating the death was thoroughly scrutinized about the exact identity of the deceased. There was no doubt that MTJoshi had expired. The telegram was from Deolali. It was discovered to the utter amazement of my clerk that MT Joshi, a twin by name, was also working in Deolali office. It was that twin who had died…and not this twin.
Anyway the files were switched and a few minor corrections made and sent again to the Boss for approval. PRONTO..the file came back with approval within seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment