I was born at a time when a family usually consisted of half a dozen children. I mean, it was ‘normal’ to have six siblings per family. But each one had an independent personality and individuality in terms of looks and features. Often, I wondered what would have it been like to have a twin brother — until I came across my neighbour’s set of triplets.

When Nimit and Misha, the neighbours, announced that they were expecting their first child after 12 years of marriage, the couple and all their well-wishers got an occasion to rejoice. They would all thank God frequently.

The very thought of having a baby in their cozy lap, hearing it cry and giggle gave them an unfathomable feeling of joy. No less were the reactions of their in-laws and other near and dear ones. After all, 12 years was a big gap.

Nevertheless, the happy husband sheepishly admitted that they both really wanted just ‘a baby’ and not once thought about the family history of Misha’s great-grandmother, who gave birth to four sets of twins and later a set of triplets — a phenomenon that might have made medical history in those days.

Purely in jest

He would often tease his wife, reminding her of her ‘lineage’ and telling her that he certainly did not want a basketful of babies like her great-grandmother had. Though it was said purely in jest, Misha did not relish it.

But as luck would have it, the doctors confirmed that Misha was going to be the mother of triplets. The couple were taken aback. Nimit did not realise that sometimes jokes could become a reality.

Finally, the threesome arrived one day — Amay, Akshay and Abhay.

After the initial euphoria and celebrations were over, the parents started experiencing problems like every new parent, but in multiples. The similarity in the physique and features of the three babies started giving jitters to the parents.

So while Misha was feeding Amay, Nimit would do his bit by giving medicinal drops to Akshay. However, due to the mirror-image twin Abhay lying next to him, he would often forget who had been deprived of the medicine. And Misha would often fail to identify the one who needed to be fed. It became a Herculean task for the parents to set the little ones apart. The danger lay in unwittingly giving two doses of drops of medicine to the same baby.

In most cases, twins act in unison but later the trend changes. On one occasion, all the three kids had an upset stomach and the parents were exhausted changing all their nappies. By the time they would get done with cleaning up Abhay, Akshay would have soiled his diapers and Amay would be all set to dole out his share.

Horrendous

Life for the first year as parents of triplets was both horrendous as well as joyful. Abhay slept through the night at just three months but Akshay did not until he was five months old and Amay till he was almost eight months old.

None of them slept at the same time, making the parents stay awake round the clock. Forget about the walking, all three teethed, slept and talked at different ages.

At 18 months, if Akshay started to invade Nimit’s wardrobe and Misha rushed to pull him out of the mess, Amay would quickly crawl into it in his place. Poor Misha would then rush to take him out but Abhay would have started pulling out the same stuff. By the time she would drag him out, Akshay would have gone back, wanting to try one more time. This would go on and it always used to be a clear battle in which nobody ever won.

Everything was done in triplicate. Nimit and Misha admit getting all three boys ready to go out of the house was similar to a ‘military operation’. It was like packing for a holiday at a 24-hour notice.

It has been almost three years and Nimit and Misha have just discovered they are expecting a set of twins now. “Oh, no. Not any more. We have had enough,” he almost shouted in the gynaecologist’s chamber when she made the disclosure.

“Doctor, we only wanted “a baby”, not multiple sets,” Nimit said as he collapsed in the chair.

Lalit Raizada is a journalist based 
in India.