Kodinhi – a tale of twins’ town
It was a Sunday afternoon when I received a phone call from my hometown. My aunt had just given birth to the seventh set of twin boys in our family. It was not at all surprising to me as my family has a history of fraternal and identical twins.
When I told my roommate that my Ghosh family’s twin count had increased by two, she laughed at the impatient look on my face. But when you are one of those people who do not love kids and is not the favourite cousin, you can do nothing but sport a disgruntled look.
To pacify me, my roommate, Prajju said that, Kodinhi, the village her mother hails from has the highest twin count in India. Kodinhi, is a village in the Mallapuram district of kerala, which is approximately 149 km from Kochi.
This lesser known village is globally famous for its remarkable yet unanswered achievement of being the home of 350 twins. This miniature town which bears the same climate like all parts of Kerala is inhabited by a population of 2000 families.
The history of twins has been traced back to 1949 and history has continued to repeat itself since then.
Extensive research has still failed to prove the reason behind this high birth rate of twins. Scientists and researchers have studied the genetic, biological, molecular, hereditary and climatic factors of Kodinhi but the mystery is still unsolved.
My roommate also added that, it was indeed mind boggling when you go around the village and see identical siblings dressed alike. Not only do teachers and spouses get confused with the siblings but also the parents are unable to distinguish between their children. The picture that she drew before my eyes reminded of the 70’s hindi movie, Seeta aur Geeta, where the identical pair of twins confused each other’s spouses.
The equally interesting part is that, the men from Kodinhi who marry women from other villages still father twins and the women from the village who get married to other men and move out from the village still bear twins. While some say that it is genetic others say that it is the climate.
A few even say that it is the water from in this village that does this wonder. But then again an examination of the water from this village has failed to yield a concrete result.
While the twin count continues to increase, this ‘twin town’ continues to baffle the scientists from all over the world.
