Twins
We both grew side by side,
For more than nine months,
In a sacred womb
Till we came out of it–
Giving Mother immense pain–
I first you several minutes later.
You were thin like ‘sutaa’( a thread);
I was fat like a ‘Jotaa’(thick rope);
Mother’s uncle and aunt called us Sutaa, and Jotaa with love
(Her father and mother dead since long);
The analogy though humorous and befitting,
Was unpalatable,
To our paternal people –Grandpa and Grandma,
Who gave us different names to their own liking.
As we grew older and older
You and I realized more and more
That we had very little in common.
Your skin was dark - mine wasn’t,
You grew fat like a thick rope,
I-thin, like a thread,
You grew in strength, I in weakness,
My friends were not yours,
Your friends were not mine,
My likings were not yours,
Your likings were not mine.
We were also opposite in merit–
You secured six in Math once, I ninety six;
I felt guilty and thought,
I had cornered the lion’s share of nutrition
And had denied you your appropriate share of it–
In Mother’s womb itself
As we grew older and older, we drifted apart:
You liked cows, I didn’t.
You enjoyed milking them - I just liked their milk.
You bathed them in a pond in summer,
After dragging them into it by force,
And holding them by the horn;
I shunned their proximity in fear—
Their sharp horns and hind legs,
Gave me nightmares
And the smell of the cows shed, nausea.
A number of cows and calves in the shed—
You knew them by their names,
And called them by their names,
I didn’t know even their total number,
Or couldn’t recognize them as ours,
Once they were out of the shed.
I loved my lessons, you hated yours.
But we were no enemies or rivals.
I was sorry about your poor performance;
And you worried for my poor health.
Though we cared for each other much,
We quarreled with each other a lot.
They say twins are alike
In body and mind, and temperament,
But we weren’t.
Strange but true!
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