by Being the only child of an army officer, I was and still do get pampered a lot. Hence having a single child was always on my mind. Then I came to know of my pregnancy in January 2011.
We all were very excited and happy. My in-laws and parents showered us with their blessings. Later on 14th Feb 2011, Valentine’s Day, we came to know that we were going to have twins. I was scared, amused and anxious and out of all shocked. Shocked, because this was something unexpected.
In addition, Kirtan (my husband) is into shipping and away from home for considerable amount of time in a year.
So I was worried of managing the kids alone and I knew this would be tough. I had zillions of questions in my mind and throughout the pregnancy the questions were endless. I was scared because I was a bit healthy and the pregnancy was a rare one which had its own challenges.
At that time I was in Rajkot, Gujarat, and that being a small city, I knew, I wouldn’t have handled my pregnancy the way I wanted. So I made the decision to move to Bangalore to my parents’ house in the 5th month and by God’s grace, I met a set of best doctors to handle the pregnancy.
It was a planned C Section and we were blessed with identical twin girls. When I saw them for the first time I too was confused, but it took me just 2 minutes to identify who was Kshithika (earth) and Kshithija (Horizon). They were born on 26th Aug. 2011, with a difference of 1 minute.
We always wanted daughters and God blessed us with beautiful ones. They now are 4.5 years old and super-active and super-naughty. Both are individuals who have different tastes in food, extracurricular activities and attitude. One is a tom-boy and the other is a complete girl.
We tried dressing them up several times in different clothes but they always insisted on wearing similar outfits. But I know for sure that they always have each other and always will protect each other whenever required.
There have been several funny incidents where people have got confused. For instance, initially after their birth, Kirtan went off to work for a long time and when he got back, after a 22 hour flight, early morning I made him stand at the door, with the little girls in my hands and asked him to identify who is who and all he did was scratch his head. Initially when my daughters joined school, I used to write K and J on their hands, or dress them up in different clothes, but the teachers still find it tough to identify.
They now know that they look alike hence when any of our first timer relatives visit us, they interchange their names and tell that she is Kshithika and the other one is Kshithija.
The best of raising twins is to see them grow together. They both are aware of them growing together too and seem to be taking it well. Maybe with age things might change. For now, they never express the desire to dress up differently.
They always have each other’s company; they play together, sleep together and eat together. This is something I guess I missed as a child as I didn’t have any siblings. The best part is finding similar clothes, shoes and telling people when asked if they are twins – “I had a buy one get one free offer!
We do receive a lot of comments and compliments and lots of questions when we visit malls and public spaces. Initially it was fun but trust me, when you hear people saying “twins , twins, twins, twins, twins” as you walk in a mall; it does get irritating.” she says with a grin.
“I have a huge circle of friends whom I met through Facebook who have identical twins or generally just twins. We have groups on Facebook for Bangalore and India which is accessible only to mums of twins.
To raise twins one needs a lot of patience. As mentioned earlier, Kirtan travels a lot on work and it’s always been me and the girls at home. The first four months too, it was me, my daughters and my parents who helped me a lot. I must say they were my huge support system. I draw all my strength from them. We never kept a nanny or anyone else to handle the kids.
Regular responsibilities like cooking, giving them a bath or making them sleep, feeding them and staying awake with them all night from the 3rd month to the 11th month were part of my routine. I was sleep deprived and exhausted at that time.
In between we did move to Rajkot but the climate didn’t suit them much over there cause of the heat. We finally decided to shift permanently to Bangalore and since then it’s been me and my daughters most of the time.
My in-laws do visit us once a year. My husband is here 5 months in a year. My parents visit us once a week or we visit them once a week. But I have a backup plan for every situation when Kirtan is not around. I know whom to contact if a particular situation happens and how to handle it.
I would say I am a complete optimistic and that has what made me so strong in taking care of our daughters well. And of course without Kirtan support all this wouldn’t have been possible.
He has been there always and always for me in the worst of times and moods too. He has heard me shout, cry in disgust, cry in anger.
The amount of respect I have for Kirtan can never been expressed in words.
He has taken care of the girls and given his 100% whenever at home. I completely devote my time to my daughters and their well being; hence I opted not to work and enjoy being a home maker and stay at home mum. I used to work in the IT sector earlier and definitely look forward to get back to work again.”
Mums and stories wishes Kiran and the adorable family a blessed life ahead.
