Different Twins
Although twins are often identical, rarely there are twins who don’t look the same. They are born together and share the same birthday. But they just don’t look similar and are called non-identical twins.
Shani and Shan were dissimilar twins like that. Shani, a girl and Shan, a boy. Shani was older than Shan by only a few minutes. Most of the time Shani and Shan found it difficult to explain to others that they were twins. Some didn’t believe them; specially the other kids. “But twins should look the same,” they’d argue,
“so you two cannot be twins!”
Things that belonged to Shani and Shan didn’t look the same. Shani liked pink and Shan liked blue. So their bags, bottles, pencil boxes, and everything else they used looked different. They didn’t dress alike too. So most people thought that they were an ordinary brother and sister and not twins.
There was another pair of twins in their school. They were identical twins. Both were boys. They looked so alike that even teachers couldn’t tell them apart. Everything about them was the same. They had identical bags, bottles and everything else they used looked
just the same.
“It seems such fun to have an
identical twin!” Shani would often complain,
“I wish you were also a girl!”
“No, you should have been a boy!
It would have been so much fun like Nilan and Nilantha,” Shan would argue.
“We should have been twin sisters!”
“No, we should have been twin brothers!”
“We don’t look the same, our things look different and people don’t even know that we are twins!” Shani often complained at home. “When we say that we are the same age and that we share the same birthday, people who don’t know us think that we’re lying or mistaken!” complained Shan.
“But you two are twins and you two share a special bond!” their mother would say to calm them. But the twins were not happy and wished that they were identical.After school Shani and Shan watched Nilan and Nilantha walking together. Both carrying the same bags and looking just the same. They looked so alike that it was like seeing the same person twice. Both Shani and Shan sighed. “Those two are so lucky. It must be so much of fun for them,” said Shani. “Yes,” agreed Shan, “if only we were also identical twins!”
Fights between Shani and Shan started getting more frequent.
“We should both get pink lunch boxes” insisted Shani, when they went to buy new lunch boxes.
“That’s your favourite colour, not mine. I think they should be blue!” argued Shan.
“We’re twins! We should have similar things; like Nilan and Nilantha,” insisted Shani.
“That’s why I say both of them
should be blue!” said Shan.
“What about a common colour for both?” asked their mother trying to settle the fight.
“No I want pink, “said Shani. “And I want blue!” said Shan. So they came home with different lunch boxes. These fights continued, every time they went out to buy things for them. “Next you two will fight saying that both should wear frocks or shorts to school!” joked their father. But the fights took place almost every day.
I wish we weren’t twins!” said Shani, after a fight one day and immediately realized how hurtful her words were.
“Well, I wish so too!” said Shan, storming out of the room.
Their father called them both and advised them. “This has got to stop! You two are twins and nothing is going to change that. And you two should be happy that you’ve got a twin. That’s something special!”
“But we’re not identical and we’ll never be,” whispered Shani as they left the room.
“And this is not fun and it never will be,” whispered back Shan.
One day after school when Shani and Shan were walking towards the gate, they saw Nilan and Nilantha. They were running around pushing each other. “Look at those two playing,” said Shani. “They are always having fun,” sighed Shan. But as they got closer they realized that Nilan and Nilantha were in fact having a fight. “What’s wrong?” asked Shani. “Why are you two fighting?” asked Shan in surprise, because he never thought they ever had any fights.
“He’s taken my water bottle!” said Nilan angrily.
“No, it’s not yours, it’s mine!” said Nilantha sounding annoyed.
“But how could you tell it’s yours? Just like all our other things, it looks the same!”
“Because when you lost your pencil box last time, you tried to take mine mistakenly!” argued Nilan. Shani and Shan managed to stop the fight with great effort. And Nilan and Nilantha apologized to each other.
Shani and Shan were silent on their way back home. “Well it looks like they are no different to us. It seems that they too fight sometimes,” said Shani finally. “Yes, it looks like sometimes there are small fights between all brothers and sisters, even twins,” laughed Shan.
“Let’s agree on a common colour when we want to have similar things,” suggested Shani. “And different colours for the ones we don’t want to look the same,” agreed Shan. “Well, it looks like it’s not bad that we’re not identical,” smiled Shani and Shan nodded in agreement.
So finally Shani and Shan felt happy that they were brother and sister.
Twins or not. Identical or not.