TWINS ARE A RARE BREED. There are several "types" of twins, but the two most common are fraternal and identical.

During my primary schooling days way back in the Nineteen Sixties, in La Salle Sentul, we had a pair of Monozygotic (Identical) twins named Peter and Paul. They caused a lot of mischief pretending to be the other and it made our lives miserable, not knowing who was the other. I lost in touch with them after finishing our Primary studies and moved to the Secondary School.
I know of another set twins later in life. This pair of dizygotic twins was born to this woman (Kalayani Amma) in her prime. Mohan & Usha, the twins had a tragic beginning. They were born 10 days after their father was involved in a tragic road accident on the 24^th of February 1959, while cycling to buy breakfast for the family. These twins were born into the world having the misfortune of not knowing their father. The family was forced to move out of Guthrie’s Sengkang Estate, where their father once worked. They were lucky that their elder brother by then was employed at the Rubber Research Institute in Sungei Buluh. The mother, twins and 3 other children took shelter with this brother, in the house provided by the Institute. Mohan and Usha looked up to their elder brother, who was 23 years older than them, more as a father figure than an elder brother.

I married one of the twins way back in 1983, you guessed it not this bald one. He is my bro-in-law, Mohan Nair I married his twin sister Usha.

Ours was an arranged marriage. As our marriage discussions in 1982 was progressing then, I had an offer to work with the Guthrie’s Rubber factory in Liberia, West Africa. I called up this girl, who was then employed at the Malaysian Sheet Glass Factory at Sungei Buluh, and informed her that I was interested to take up this offer and that if she was willing to follow me there. As it was written in the Stars, we got married, moved to Liberia, started a family and returned after 7 years with 2 children (Born in 1984, 1986). Another child followed later in 1991.

The other twin boy, Mohan worked with CCM, and currently works for the same company his twin sister worked i.e. Malaysian Sheet Glass at Sungei Buluh. Was that coincidence or fate, I wonder. He too is married and has 3 boys.

SO WHAT ARE TWINS? There are several "types" of twins, but the two most common are fraternal and identical.

FRATERNAL TWINS – medically termed as dizygotic twins – occur when two offspring are born of the same pregnancy and develop from two separate ova that were released from the ovary and fertilized at the same time. Fraternal twins may be of the same or opposite sex and will differ genetically as well as in appearance.

IDENTICAL TWINS – medically termed as monozygotic and they result from the fertilization of one egg by one sperm which splits after fertilization and results in two babies being formed. Each twin develops from the identical half of one fertilized egg.

Identical twins always have the same features since they have the same genetic makeup. Their hair, eye colour, blood type, body scent and dental impressions will be exactly the same. Some identical twins are also called mirror twins because some of their features are related in a mirror-like manner.

Half the fraternal twins in the world are same-sex and the other half is male-female. One factor relating to the incidence of fraternal twins is age. The older a mother is when she conceives the more likely she is to have fraternal twins. This is especially prevalent after the age of 35. My mother-in-law gave birth to her twins when she was 41years old.
New fertility drugs called Pergonal increases the chances multiple births. So those out there if you are keen on twins, triplets or more you need to see your Gyne, quick quick quick.