During my early years, we as children were being compared among ourselves by the elders in the family. Words such as "Oh my! he's just like his brother " or " Why dont you learn some of your brother's good habits" would be commonly heard in the household. This , directly or not , sometimes even led to sibling rivalry.
We never understood the purpose of that exercise by elders. It would inadvertently lead to unpleasant situations, like say during our annual results time. Veena has seen a fair share of these things as well, in her growing years.
When we had twins, we realised that this is one of the main things that we will have to guard ourselves against doing. Actually there isn't anything the kids would have to do. They just have to be themselves and we should let them be that. These girls arent even six and we are already seeing many issues.
Raising two girls of the same age who are very different in nature has been a challenge in many ways but the biggest challenge has been to treat them differently but yet equally. Veena has taken this responsibility upon herself almost fully and that is fantastic. This particular aspect has given us many sleepless nights, has been the topic of humour, has forced tears down our cheeks..
It is humorous when
people talk about Neha being shorter than Nidhi and she sees this ad on TV and insists that her mom should buy her Complan. We were using Boost as the energy drink for kids. Now Neha actually drinks Complan and thinks she is growing faster. She goes grocery shopping with Veena, carries back home the Complan pack herself and proudly announces "appa, it has 23 vitamins!"
It is amusing to
watch Veena tell them their bedtime stories. She has to sleep between them, her hands spread like eagle wings to act as pillow for their heads and her own head has to face the ceiling. (equi distant from either of them). She turns it one side and the kid on the other side gets upset.
It hurts when
people chide nidhi for being more mischievous. She being very sensitive, equates that to her being a "bad girl" and comes and asks her mom "amma, why did you ask god for two papus?"
