Kodinhi – Kerala’s village of twins

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Kodinhi – Kerala’s village of twins By any metric, conceiving twins and triplets is a rare natural occurrence around the world. In fact, on average only 16 out of 1,000 successful pregnancies in the world result in twins and this average is even lower in India at just 9. However, this ratio is heavily skewed in the sleepy hamlet of Kodinhi in Kerala , which has a record 400 pairs of twins in a population of just over 2,000 families! Geneticists and scientists have long tried to explain this rare phenomenon but are only now making some headway. While experts have pointed to genetics as an obvious factor, what’s even more mysterious is that irrespective of religion, lineage or their original heritage, all families living in the village have conceived more than the average pairs of twins over the last few generations, and the number is consistently growing.

Monica Libao

Monica Libao

09

Throughout her childhood, Monica Libao moved around a lot and spent the first 15 years of her life living at 28 different addresses with her parents, Pablo and Burma. After she turned 16, Monica discovered a secret after her mother became ill and Monica caught a glimpse of her medical records. She noticed that Burma underwent a hysterectomy nearly two decades before Monica was even born.

After confronting Burma about this, Monica was told that one of her older half-sisters was her real biological mother. After giving birth to Monica when she was 19, the sister gave her up and let Burma and Pablo raise her instead. However, when Monica questioned her sister, she was informed that Burma’s story was a complete lie and that Monica’s real mother had actually sold her to the Libaos in exchange for a bus ticket.

The story got even more bizarre when Monica found her old birth certificate, which stated she was born in Chicago but listed no hospital or doctor and had been filed when Monica was seven years old. Years later, during a heated family get-together, Monica finally learned about an incident where her mother hid her from the police while she was a baby. She became convinced that her parents had kidnapped her from her real family, which would explain

Monica has since hired investigators to look into her past and find out who she really is. At one point, she underwent a DNA test to see if she might be Elizabeth Gill, a two-year Missouri girl who vanished from her family’s front yard in 1965. However, the test ruled this out, so the truth about Monica Libao’s real identity continues to elude her.



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