A common face

This happens to me too often. Strangers from a crowd come to me and say, “I have seen you somewhere. But I can’t remember exactly where I met you.” Then they start asking me questions to refresh their memory. I help them to recollect. But we both come to the conclusion that we never met before.
The first incident I can remember happened some 35 years back. We were in college and went on an excursion. From a college in Kerala to Madras. Our night stay was arranged in classrooms of a college in Tutucorin. Next morning just as our bus was starting off to our next destination, two proffessors of the college got into the bus and introduced themselves. We all thanked them for the hospitality they showed and all the help we got.
As they said goodbye to us, one of the lady pointed at me and said, “I have seen you somewhere. You look very familiar.” She was a Tamilian and this was my first visit to Tamilnadu. I just smiled. Is your name, Ganga, she asked. All the girls in a chorus shouted, Yes, she is Ganga. “You are a classical singer” she excitedly added. There was a loud uproar of laughter from the girls as they knew, I could not even sing the nursery rhymes in the expected tune..
The professor spent another five minutes asking me questions which I couldn’t answer, and she left all confused. We girls had a good laugh and we concluded that she might have heard someone calling me, so she could say my name. I never thought of this incident until recently when at a wedding reception an elderly woman came to me and said she knew me. When she left the venue after coming to me several times, she had tears in her eyes. She hugged me and gave blessings. May be I resembled someone she knew. She couldn’t recollect.
I remember a few other times when in a train, at the bus stand often at the temples, people find my face familiar. May be I’m having the most common face. An ordinary familiar look of a typical Malayalee. I never met anyone who resembles me. But others find me familiar. In 35 years age has brought so much change in my looks. Still these repeated incidents leave me confused….