posted March 04, 2007 11:48 AM         

A group of children is playing near the village pond. "Kidhar jaana hai,"one asks. "Judwon ke ghar (to the house of the twins),"we tell them. "Kaun se waale? Judwe to poore gaon mein hai (Which ones? The whole village has twins),"they answer, grinning.

This is what separates Mohammadpur Umri from other villages - it's a village full of twins. Out of a total population of 600, there are almost 33 pairs of twins here. Even two pairs in a population of 600 is considered high.

By that yardstick, this village is nothing short of a genetic goldmine, says Dr Lalji Singh, director of Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.

A team from the Centre, a few years ago collected blood samples of the twins and their parents to understand this phenomenon.

According to G R Chandak, who headed the team, they haven't found the reason yet, although it could be a mixture of environment, food and living conditions. Another factor could be the high degree of consanguinous or intermarriages in the village.

By all accounts, twins have been born in Umri village for the past 60 years, although their numbers have increased substantially in the past few years.

Shafique Mian, a village elder, remembers the earliest twins, a pair of girls, being born sometime after Partition. One of them later got married and went to Bangladesh, while the other died, he says.

Cases of one of the twins dying at birth or later are also quite common in the village. According to Mohammed Asad, the imam of the local masjid, there are at least 20 such pairs where one of the twins has died.

Even with its existing number, says Chandak, the village easily qualifies for the record books. "As far as we know, this is one of the places with the highest population of twins,"he says.

With twins in almost every other house, there's often been ample scope for a comedy of errors. Cases abound of mothers feeding the same child twice.

Or, fathers beating the same child twice. The oldest surviving twins here, 41-year-old Hasan and Trehan, locally known as Bade Guddu and Chhote Guddu because they were born within a gap of 30 minutes, recount many such incidents.

"In our youth, we not only used to look alike but also dress similarly. Once, I challenged the local halwai that I could eat all the jalebis he could make in one sitting. After polishing off half his stock, I went into my house and out came my brother, who finished the rest. The poor halwai couldn't believe his eyes. Only later did someone tell him we were twins,"says the elder twin, laughing.

Recalls his sibling, "Initially, we had only one driving licence made, which both of us used. After marriage, our wives would also get confused, until my brother started wearing glasses and there was less confusion."

Not all twins, however, have similar tastes. Thirteen-year-old Farhaan and Imraan, for instance, say they're as different as chalk and cheese.

While one likes cricket, the other hates it. They both sport different hairstyles too and it takes some cajoling to get them to pose for pictures together.

Although the villagers bask in the reflected glory of the village, many wish more concrete things are done for their
village.

Says Mohammed Mobin, a father of 10, including a pair of twins, "With twins being born in every other family, there is added pressure to feed one more mouth. So many people have come to our village to see this phenomenon, yet little has been done to improve conditions here."

Agrees Shafiq Mian, "Most people in Umri are either farmers or milkmen. The village neither has a school nor a hospital, which is why cases of still-born children or deaths during pregnancy are common."

As we get ready to leave, comes the news of the birth of another pair of twins - a boy and a girl. At any other place,
the news would have been a pleasant surprise, but at Mohammadpur Umri, it's accepted in a matter-of-fact way. For, in the village of twins, not having twins would perhaps be news.