They gave me a hard slap on my bottom, and I cried! I am told that I cried louder than any other baby that was born in the ward. My cries were not of pain or discomfort they were out of indignation. They must have surely known that I was one of the ‘omega babies’! How rude the doctors were. I had hardly taken my first breath and gasped in the bright sunlight when I was unceremoniously slapped. How dare they! But my anger soon subsided when my eyes were dazzled by the brilliant sunlight!
How glorious it was to see light, bright beautiful light of many colors. I could see all the dust particles transformed and illuminated into dancing gold dust in the beam of light that flowed through the window. I could see the nurses as they moved up and down to look after the other babies. Dressed in their strange uniforms they were told to take special care of us ! We were not like other babies, we were known as the ‘omega twins’ . My sister and I. We were a genetic experiment – it was to be top secret. I know because I heard all the instructions and other chatter whilst I was in my Mothers womb. She was no normal Mother either. I adored her and all I really wanted was to be held by her and smiled at . Being a respected professor of biochemistry who was working on techniques to chemically stimulate prenatal babies, she had decided to experiment on her own babies that she was carrying in her womb. My twin sister and I were the Omega plus babies which means that we were intellectually superior !
We had been fed on special medicine so that our brain cells would develop more than normal babies. It is said that for all babies learning is survival ! So babies can learn anything you teach them – we were the guinea pigs ! My Mother was considered a visionary at heart and a biochemist by profession and had tried this experiment only with the help of her team of scientists from the University. These substances that were fed to me, made me aware of a lot of things whilst I was still in her womb. I could hear and understand her talk to her colleagues on how she was going to experiment with her own babies and that she would stimulate us to attain our full intellectual capacity before we learned to walk.
I don’t think my sister was as bright as I was. I have a suspicion that I was the main recipient of the medication and hormones and other unknown substances that were administered to us jointly. I don’t know if this was deliberate or accidental. She was a lazy baby and was always sleeping. May be I got an overdose of medicine and she got nothing. But I heard children speak once and the general consensus was that girl babies were quite stupid anyway.
My Mother would play special subliminal music all day long as this was part of the treatment and everything we were to learn was put on the music. My omega twin slept through everything. I wonder why everyone especially my super mom loved her so much and laughed when she would give one of her dimpled smiles!
Things were organized well for us. Should I call it a time of peace? Our food was regulated , our baths and lessons and especially the times we had to listen those horrible tapes. As we grew into toddlers my sister would play with toys – those inane ones with the faces of animals cartoons painted on them. You could press a button and the music would start. I was given numbers to remember and told difficult data and I would respond correctly. Initially I got all the attention . Then things started changing …..
I started wondering why everyone loved my omega sister more than me. Then one day I had a look at my face in the mirror. I compared myself with my sister, I recognized the same bright brown eyes and curly hair that she had. But I realized that I didn’t have the same smile as she had. Nor her innocent dumb expression that appealed to everyone . In place of that I had a pained expression of someone who knows things way beyond his age. Even my parents loved her and cuddled her more than they did to me. Was the price or burden of early knowledge that no one would love me?
That’s when the realization dawned on me and I realized that I had to become a baby once again. I refused to look at the flash cards with complicated equations and large words that were presented to me. I would close my eyes and then I learnt an invaluable tool that I had seen my sister use since she was born . It was called the ‘magic’ of crying. It was only with the combined techniques of sulking and crying alternatively that I learned to become a baby once again. I loved gurgling and trying to put my toes into my mouth and play with my inane toys with silly animal faces and push buttons that started colourful lights . It was only by doing these silly things that I became a baby once again ! I became the silly baby loved by everyone……