Recently I was mistaken for someone else. That’s nothing new as far as I am concerned. Apparently there are many of my lookalikes roaming the earth. There I was standing outside the book store at the recently concluded literature festival chatting with a couple of my friends when a young woman approached and asked me,

“Are you ….?”

As I had been busy talking to my friends, I didn’t quite get the name she mentioned. So she repeated her question.

“Are you Sandhya Ma’am?” (At least that’s what I heard)

I definitely wasn’t, so told her as much. The young woman apologised and withdrew and I happily turned back to continue the interrupted conversation with my friends. Much to my surprise, instead of carrying on from where we left off, both my friends had something else to say.

“That girl had taken a book out for you to sign!”

Huh?

“She probably mistook you for some author…”

Well, we were standing outside the bookstore where authors were regularly stepping in for book signing. Could it really be that the girl had mistaken me for an author? My friends insisted she had. The name ‘Sandhya’ rang a bell. Mary Sandhya! I had missed the morning session on her book Maria Just Maria, but had only just checked it out at the store.

Putting two and two together, I promptly arrived at four. Omg! The young woman had really thought I was her? Mary Sandhya? But… How? Why? Curiouser now than the proverbial cat, I turned to Google for an answer. Google did what it does best, threw up pictures of the author by the dozen. And I was gobsmacked!

The very first picture was one of the author with really short cut salt and pepper hair just like mine, and in many of the photos, she seemed to be laughing heartily, which incidentally I had been doing when the young woman approached.

When updated about the matter, family and friends (except for one who was vociferous in denying any similarity) agreed there was indeed a resemblance and added that they could well see how someone could make the mistake at a glance. Here’s a link to an article on the author and her book. Tell me what you think 😉

©️ Shail Mohan 2026