Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.
A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another
B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other
C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other
D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another
E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other

I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..
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E is the best choice, but it sounds awkward because "having" is used twice. I doubt the GMAT would use a problem like this.
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