This is insane. I have had an email from my friend about a village in southern India that is famous for having twins.

Kodinhi is a sleepy hamlet in Malappuram district of Kerala state in India, some 15 kms away from the University of Calicut.The village, located in Nannambra panchayat, should have remained as one of the rural, backward and Muslim dominated towns here.The village has now caught national and international attention by having a large birth-rate of twins.

The number of pairs of twins born on the soil of Kodinhi with a population of less than 15000 has now crossed the figure 200. The birth rate of twins is on a continuing note here. The surprising concentration of twins in this village has triggered off research by various individuals and institutions. The schools in the village and nearby places have dozens of pairs of twins studying for various classes, many of them identical and same sex.Many funny stories are doing rounds in the schools about the teachers finding it difficult to identify the twins.The local people too face similar piquant situation. The identity crisis is not confined to schools alone.There are also jocks that the newly-wed couples of Kodinhi often mistake their partners for the other twins of the pairs in the beginning of their conjugal life!

The mammoth birth rate of twins in the village still remains as a mystery coupled with curiosity for everyone. Research by scientific and biological teams has begun to unravel the mystery of the large scale birth of twins here.Recently, a national team of geneticists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology , Hyderabad visited the village for studies. Such high birth-rates of twins have not been reported from anywhere in the world, except certain places in Nigeria and Spain

The National Geographical Channel, the international news agency, Reuters and Khaleej Times of Saudi Arabia are also due to visit Kodinhi to record the interesting phenomena found here.

The genetic, biological,molecular, heriditary and climatic factors of the puzzling phenomena are the subject matter of the research on the multiple births at Kodinhi . It’s interesting to note that the women married off from Kodinhi, and also women married to the men in Kodinhi,  have been giving birth to twins. The oldest known twins of the village are now 59 year old Kunhikadiya and Alavi ( female and male respectively). There were also instances of the birth of triplets.

While the strange and wonderful phenomina of extra-ordinary concentration of twin births in this village continues, an in-depth study on the various factors to find out its causes has become highly essential.

In 2008 alone, 15 pairs of twins were born out of 300 healthy deliveries, and this rate is increasing every year.

I may be wrong, but most of the people that i know, those overseas students that are studying is Aus. are driven more by the possibility of a residency, than by the intellectual benefits of a higher education. Over the years Australia have become a hot spot for Indian students that want to study abroad and start a new life or may be, make a new beginning.

And what a beginning it can be. To start with, the cultural shock that a wannabe Australian faces, is enough to make a grown man cry for his mother. Every thing is so daunting, its not that they have not seen cars or huge trucks or big roads before, its just that they are so busy to comprehend the sights and sounds of the new world, even the smallest or normal happenings around them live them flabbergasted. A passing toyota can seem like a dream car, an 14 wheeler can seem to be the biggest machine ever build by mankind and the evenly laid stretch of tarmac can seem to be the gift from the heavens above. The land of dreams can really have them dreaming, with their eyes open, until of course, the reality of the real life sets in.

And it is then that they realize that all is not fun and games. Its like walking a thin line, you have to balance the burden of study and work, and this is easier said than done. Most of the students that come here, often come from a home that takes good care of them. They have their parents to look after them in their home countries, their every need and want is been addressed to, they may have their own cars, fancy houses, maybe a good paying job and even some servants working for them. And they leave all of these behind to come to Aus. (or any other country they choose to go). To some, this decision can seem to be a very bad one, or even foolish, but the fact is, the urge to live on a foreign land can be so strong, that it can veil the thinking capabilities of the most sharpest and foresighted minds. If you can ask any overseas student about the reason for him being in a foreign country, the answer that you are most likely to get is, for a search of a better life style. And surprisingly many of those who claim to be in search of a better life style, are doing odd and laborious jobs which they will never think about doing in their home countries, i don’t know how can the style of your life can be improved upon by washing cars or by cleaning dirty dishes at some restaurant.

life can be tough when every few months, you have to scrape through every available resource to just be able to accumulate the money needed to pay the semester fees. Every thing sort of revolves around saving that extra buck, even if it means to skip a lunch or walking instead of getting a taxi. Even an occasional train travel without a valid ticket seems to be a valid option. I have come across some students that sacrifice their sleep for two or three nights at a stretch to earn enough to pay for their fees and other expenses. They don’t have any other option but to work their a## off. If reports are correct, some girls who are over seas students, are also involved in sex trade to earn more money. A far cry from having a good life style.

And as if all of this was not enough, some of these students have faced a new problem, that of harassment at the hands of a few ill-mannered bullies that prey on the weak. Some call it racism, but is it really that?