Two accounts. Or one.

Many of you, I'm sure, have seen the various first-hand accounts from the Bombay attacks that are making the rounds. One such was from Michael Pollack, described as a "general partner of Glenhill Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2001." It is a chilling recounting of 12 hours he and his wife Anjali spent huddling in terror in the bowels of the Taj. The story was published in Forbes, and the couple was interviewed by Charlie Rose (my friend Anupendra Sharma has the video and the account here).

Yesterday, another first-hand account arrived. The message says it was written by Todd Cather, described as "a partner with NDC Capital Partners from New York". It came with two photographs from the attack.

Chilling, too? It would have been, except that Cather's account is pretty much identical to Pollack's. The language has been massaged somewhat, and there are now characters named Vishal, Amrita, Priya and Chris in it. The "young commando" who rescued Anjali is now described as "In Anjali's words 'a young gorgeous looking commando' came in just like in a movie". Etc.

But in essence, the two accounts are identical.

What's more, this embellished account has been reproduced all over the place. For example, it's here, attributed to "a hedge fund portfolio manager." It's here, attributed to "a survivor". It's here, attributed to "Bob Lenzner, national editor of Forbes".

And what about those photographs? One of them is of the couple, on being reunited. After watching the video on Anupendra's blog, I recognize them: Michael and Anjali Pollack. It's the photograph that appears, cropped, on the Forbes page.

Can anyone explain to me what's going on? Am I missing something?

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Nor is this the only case like this. Of that, maybe another time.