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Geneticistsfind twins, and more twins in UP village: The Asian age
Allahabad, Aug 15: At first glance it looks as ordinary and mundane as any other village. It is only when you look around carefully that you realise the difference.
Allahabad, Aug 15: At first glance it looks as ordinary and mundane as any other village. It is only when you look around carefully that you realise the difference.
In Umri, a sleepy hamlet in Allahabad district, men, women and children mostly come in twos. Yes, this is a village that boasts of the biggest twin population in the country, or may be even the world.
The village has a population of about 800, most of them Muslims, and there are about 40 pairs of living twins. Several have died over the years and only one sibling remains. "At one time we had 60 pairs of twins," says Nassu, 30, whose twin brother died in an accident some years ago.
The first twins in this village, Hasina and Madina, were born nearly 62 years ago. Hasina passed away but Madina still lives on to tell her tale. "When we were born, people would come from other villages to look at us. As we grew older, we looked completely identical and confusion would permanently prevail in our house. One of us would often be fed twice while the other would be made to work twice as hard. Both of us shared similar interests and though we would also fight amongst ourselves, we could never stay away from each other till she left me for another world," recalls Madina.
After Hasina and Madina, the next pair of twins was born in Umri some 29 years later in the house of Ahmad Ali. The boys, Mohammed Rehan (Munnu) and Mohammed Hassan (Guddu), are robust young men of 33 today. Apart from strikingly identical features, the two share the same gait, the same interests and even the same clothes. Guddu and Munnu, as children, were known for the pranks they played on the village elders. They would eat sweets at the halwai and blame it on each other. They would fib endlessly and get the benefit of the doubt. Some of their neighbours really had terrible times because of them, recalls their aunt Munni with a smile. Munnu and Guddu were married together and it took quite some time for their wives to learn to differentiate between the two.
For Kiran and Suman, 14-year-old twin sisters, being lookalikes is not a happy experience. The two, given a choice, would not like to be reborn as twins. "There are problems all the time. Our parents cannot differentiate between us and one gets beaten up for something she has not done. We have no identity or individuality and are fed up of being made to wear similar clothes," says Kiran and Suman nods in agreement.
Umri , however, is now reaching out for its share of glory with scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad focusing their attention on the twin phenomenon that prevails in this village. The entire village has become a prized laboratory for geneticists as it is, perhaps, the only place in the world where so many twins are living in one village.
Two weeks ago, two scientists from CCMB came down to Umri to collect blood samples of the twins and their parents for DNA analysis. According to CCMB director Lalji Singh, Umri could be a genetic gold mine. One out of 10 persons in this village was born a twin and the twinning phenomenon continues, he feels.
The CCMB team found one family with 10 children, four of whom were born twins — all girls — which Dr Singh describes as "a very rare event." The oldest living twin met by the team was 33, suggesting that twinning has been taking place for years.
According to Dr Singh, because of the high rate of inbreeding in Umri, the study might be able to discover the gene (or genes) responsible for twinning, if there is one. The CCMB studies will go one step further and try to find out the genetic basis for the difference in the behaviour of twins and their susceptibility to diseases. "Umri is going to open a new chapter in genetic studies," he says.
In Umri, a sleepy hamlet in Allahabad district, men, women and children mostly come in twos. Yes, this is a village that boasts of the biggest twin population in the country, or may be even the world.
The village has a population of about 800, most of them Muslims, and there are about 40 pairs of living twins. Several have died over the years and only one sibling remains. "At one time we had 60 pairs of twins," says Nassu, 30, whose twin brother died in an accident some years ago.
The first twins in this village, Hasina and Madina, were born nearly 62 years ago. Hasina passed away but Madina still lives on to tell her tale. "When we were born, people would come from other villages to look at us. As we grew older, we looked completely identical and confusion would permanently prevail in our house. One of us would often be fed twice while the other would be made to work twice as hard. Both of us shared similar interests and though we would also fight amongst ourselves, we could never stay away from each other till she left me for another world," recalls Madina.
After Hasina and Madina, the next pair of twins was born in Umri some 29 years later in the house of Ahmad Ali. The boys, Mohammed Rehan (Munnu) and Mohammed Hassan (Guddu), are robust young men of 33 today. Apart from strikingly identical features, the two share the same gait, the same interests and even the same clothes. Guddu and Munnu, as children, were known for the pranks they played on the village elders. They would eat sweets at the halwai and blame it on each other. They would fib endlessly and get the benefit of the doubt. Some of their neighbours really had terrible times because of them, recalls their aunt Munni with a smile. Munnu and Guddu were married together and it took quite some time for their wives to learn to differentiate between the two.
For Kiran and Suman, 14-year-old twin sisters, being lookalikes is not a happy experience. The two, given a choice, would not like to be reborn as twins. "There are problems all the time. Our parents cannot differentiate between us and one gets beaten up for something she has not done. We have no identity or individuality and are fed up of being made to wear similar clothes," says Kiran and Suman nods in agreement.
Umri , however, is now reaching out for its share of glory with scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad focusing their attention on the twin phenomenon that prevails in this village. The entire village has become a prized laboratory for geneticists as it is, perhaps, the only place in the world where so many twins are living in one village.
Two weeks ago, two scientists from CCMB came down to Umri to collect blood samples of the twins and their parents for DNA analysis. According to CCMB director Lalji Singh, Umri could be a genetic gold mine. One out of 10 persons in this village was born a twin and the twinning phenomenon continues, he feels.
The CCMB team found one family with 10 children, four of whom were born twins — all girls — which Dr Singh describes as "a very rare event." The oldest living twin met by the team was 33, suggesting that twinning has been taking place for years.
According to Dr Singh, because of the high rate of inbreeding in Umri, the study might be able to discover the gene (or genes) responsible for twinning, if there is one. The CCMB studies will go one step further and try to find out the genetic basis for the difference in the behaviour of twins and their susceptibility to diseases. "Umri is going to open a new chapter in genetic studies," he says.