It's a Twins Plus Festival...

Casual visitors to Zabeel Park weren’t seeing double on Friday but they were witness to a special gathering of hundreds of twins and triplets for the second annual Twins Plus Festival.

Moreover, the event was known to have been organised by Twins Plus in Dubai, a support group initiated in 2003 to support mothers of twins and triplets and quadruplets living in Dubai.

According to Dubai Health Authority, around 2,875 sets of twins, triplets and quadruplets where born in Dubai from 2010 to 2012, according to Suman Manning, who runs the support group Twins Plus and is the organiser of the event.

Manning said, that being a mother of triplets herself, she know the support that a mother of twins needs so they decided to organise the event to get twins and mothers to meet and support each other through sharing advice or by simply knowing that they are not alone. 

In fact, Gulf News interviewed some of the twins and triplets along with their families to learn more about their lives and why they decided to attend the event.

Identical twins Sharjeel and Raheel, 29, from Pakistan told that they attended the festival hoping they might meet identical twin sisters who through some stroke of luck could turn out to be soulmates.

Quiet interestingly...

Moreover, they said that they are inseparable to the point that they share one phone, one car and work at the same company in the same job position. They also have the same taste and so purchase everything in twos and so they also hope to marry identical twins as well but if they fail to find identical twins then they hope to at least marry sisters who look a bit alike.

In fact, Nisreen Atmih is the mother of nine-month-old non-identical twins Fareed and Fares but her children are so different that they won the most non-identical twins contest. Fact-fully, the two are very different while one is dark-skinned with black eyes and black hair, the other is blonde with blue eyes. Even their personalities are different when one is calm and likes to walk and sit while the other is naughty and likes to play with toys.

Other attractions in the festival...

Games and competitions such as the most similar twins, the least similar twins and even one for the biggest pregnant belly were held through the day while there was also an expert corner where foetal maternity specialists, midwifes and nutritionists gave advice to the parents of twins and triplets.

As a concluding fact, quiet interestingly last year in the region's unique event there were 450 set of twins, 36 triplets and 3,500 visitors known to have attended while Manning told that she was expecting to elevate those numbers.

It's really unique and fun filled event for all!

(AW:Samrat Biswas)