Two is Company

It was a Friday evening that I walked into the doctor's waiting room to find an anxious brother in law, a glowering pregnant sister and an unruffled mother waiting for an appointment. We were expecting twins. But not anytime soon it seemed.

'29th July' announced the doc as the expected due date. Y sat with me on the bench woebegone and looking like the babies would burst out at any minute. "How will I survive for another month?" she moaned.

However, time and twins wait for no man. The very next day, the family is at the hospital and my mother informs me she's sent the car to fetch me because ''something is happening''. The twins arrived ten minutes before I did. Impatient little tykes.

The boys are Cancerians. Just like me. Brought into the world by the very same doctor who delivered me 27 years ago. How cool is that? Yessir, me and the boys'll get along just fine.

My sister wants to call them Arnav and Avinash. We're really not in a position to be arguing with her right now. But the conspiracies are under way. My brother is smsing filmy suggestions like Karan-Arjun from the UK as we speak. Till then 'Pickle' and 'Paapad' remain.

Meanwhile, their older sister Peanut, was rather overwhelmed by it all. I visited her after she'd been in to see the babies. She seemed to be taking things in her stride by then. She even confided in me that Pickle was her favorite. When I asked her why, she declared 'He's mine!!'. There might be some proprietory issues once the family is back together under one roof.

In just a few days I'll be upto my ears in nieces and nephews. Must've done something right. :-)