In our childhood both my sister and I used to take music classes. Being the elder sibling Sissy’s classes started earlier than me. Her vocal instructor Mr. Ganguli used to come to our house for her. Ganguli uncle was a good friend with my dad. This is when I was 3 or 4 years old. Ganguli uncle occasionally brought his little daughter Bulbul with him. Bulbul, it’s a name of a bird in Bengali. Bulbul was of my age and she used to go to the same school as me. I don’t remember how Bulbul and I became good friends. I can’t recall how she looked like but she was very pretty. She had milky white skin and nice hair just like her mom. Sometimes uncle picked me up from school and I used to play with Bulbul at her place. Their house was amidst the nature, they had a baya weaver’s (Babui pakhi) nest in their balcony. It’s a weaver bird found in Indian subcontinent. I have never seen such a beautiful nest in my life.
Oneday Ganguli uncle gave us a calender as Bulbul insisted him to do so. It was not an ordinary calendar. The calendar had a photo of a girl who looks exactly like me! Bulbul was the first person to find that. The girl’s features were quite similar to me, my parents also agreed. The girl seemed to be a little older than me and her hair was longer. It happened about 1998 or so. I was so little but I used to think about this calendar girl a.k.a. my doppelgänger, I wonder where she was, what she’s doing, one day we would meet etc.
Time passed, we moved to another city. It’s been 20 years since I met Bulbul. I don’t know if she remembers me or not. She must’ve grown even prettier. And my doppelgänger? Did she grow up to look as trashy as me? If it had happened recently I could’ve easily found her out. Maybe someday somewhere I would meet her in person and share this story with her. 😀
