Similarity runs in genes. Let me start it with the story told by Awe. He was telling me about conferences, department, colleagues like A, B, C, D and of course K, who chased him to make him run across Dharmatala streets at 7 or 8 in the evening (the actual culprit behind this rage being Awe himself), who sometimes nailed people in the department (due to abundance of pins from the tickets), who hung her bag from her left shoulder across her waist and adjusted the strap like dragging out a sword from the scabbard and then re-inserting it, and who had many more of such well-expressed habits. Anyway, one day Awe was travelling from his hometown to his workplace. There was a girl sitting opposite to him in the train. Gradually they got into a conversation and Awe got to know that she was K2, K's sister. But they had very little similarities to be identified as sisters. K2 was darker, healthier, taller and looked quite different from K. After a long period of conversation, K2 got up to go to the washroom. Right on standing she adjusted the strap of her bag hung from her left shoulder across her waist like taking out a sword from the scabbard and then re-inserting it...
After listening to this, I started to think of what I do that my gene does. Since childhood I have been told by a number of people, almost all who came across me, that I looked like my mother. But now there is a group who believe that half of my face is like my mother whereas the other half resembles my father. The line of demarcation though varies. Sometimes it's below my nose, sometimes above it, sometimes right on it, sometimes it is oblique and most of the time it is so vague that I really admire the observer for having such a sharp eye to distinguish every part of my face and my parents'. Sometimes my aunt is brought into the picture when my nose is concerned. There is a constant flow of opinions about my eyes, brow, forehead, nose, cheeks, area between nose and lips (half of it, full of it), upper lip, lower lip, angle of mouth, earlobes including their ditto resemblance and slight modifications (to the right, to the left, sharper, darker etc.) also. Thoroughly dissected, my face hardly looks like my own.
Coming to habits; my parents have a lot which I don't have and vice versa. I bite nails which is an off-and-on phenomenon. There are times when I take days off and let the nails grow. An examination or any event I'm anxious about comes, and my teeth are again employed. B, my brother, has the same habit but his is constant. Once he expressed joy over the fact that he played piano, not guitar or else he couldn't have bitten the nails (Nylon-string guitars are played without plectrum and well-shaped nails are a necessity to pluck the strings properly). Next, I have a habit to fidget, mostly when nervous or even thoughtful. None in my immediate family does that. Then, I rub my fingers over any outgrowth including acne until it gets darker and turns chronic. I'm given a series of threats and warnings that this might happen or that might happen if I go on doing something so unhygienic (qualitatively similar to the warnings against my nail-biting). I listen very carefully, nod my head in full agreement, think about it very deeply and suddenly realize that I was rubbing on it all the while. There are multiple other habits like scratching on forearm while sleeping, frowning whenever I'm concentrating on something, frowning again when I'm on the road alone etc. But I can't connect them to anybody genetically. And none of these exactly resemble habits of my ancestors or even brothers and sisters. Thankfully, people who know everything and understand everything hardly go beyond my face and try to disentangle any thread in identifying other similarities.
The only similarity that convinces me of genetic acquisition of traits (in my case) is that of the natures of my father and me. There are some observations made by T, my cousin. A lot of my gestures, according to T, are carbon-copies of my father's. My ways of reading books in a half-lying posture with my elbow flexed on bed supporting the weight of upper half of my body, of holding pens and brushes, of walking strongly trace up my genetic connection. Though I would like to raise a protest against the point of walking. However. Both of us can go on reading story books without noticing anyone around and often when we look up from the book, the person looks either terribly irritated or terribly surprised. But my father often listens to someone sitting in front without glancing at him/her and looking at every other corner of the room including the ceiling, whereas I look right at the person talking, not hearing a word of what he/ she is saying and thinking about a completely different something. Then, we both are stubborn, partially dominating, headstrong, more into spending than saving (this link runs even farther; my grandfather was no less than a millionaire when it came to his ideas of spending), but my father is logical and I rely mostly upon my fantasy. We both are good with our suggestions (my father holds the crown though). And there may be some more, too. As a whole, if I'm visibly resembling anyone, that is my father more than my mother. Whenever I see Baba sitting or thinking or watching TV, I remember Awe's comment on K and K2, "see how gene runs".
After listening to this, I started to think of what I do that my gene does. Since childhood I have been told by a number of people, almost all who came across me, that I looked like my mother. But now there is a group who believe that half of my face is like my mother whereas the other half resembles my father. The line of demarcation though varies. Sometimes it's below my nose, sometimes above it, sometimes right on it, sometimes it is oblique and most of the time it is so vague that I really admire the observer for having such a sharp eye to distinguish every part of my face and my parents'. Sometimes my aunt is brought into the picture when my nose is concerned. There is a constant flow of opinions about my eyes, brow, forehead, nose, cheeks, area between nose and lips (half of it, full of it), upper lip, lower lip, angle of mouth, earlobes including their ditto resemblance and slight modifications (to the right, to the left, sharper, darker etc.) also. Thoroughly dissected, my face hardly looks like my own.
Coming to habits; my parents have a lot which I don't have and vice versa. I bite nails which is an off-and-on phenomenon. There are times when I take days off and let the nails grow. An examination or any event I'm anxious about comes, and my teeth are again employed. B, my brother, has the same habit but his is constant. Once he expressed joy over the fact that he played piano, not guitar or else he couldn't have bitten the nails (Nylon-string guitars are played without plectrum and well-shaped nails are a necessity to pluck the strings properly). Next, I have a habit to fidget, mostly when nervous or even thoughtful. None in my immediate family does that. Then, I rub my fingers over any outgrowth including acne until it gets darker and turns chronic. I'm given a series of threats and warnings that this might happen or that might happen if I go on doing something so unhygienic (qualitatively similar to the warnings against my nail-biting). I listen very carefully, nod my head in full agreement, think about it very deeply and suddenly realize that I was rubbing on it all the while. There are multiple other habits like scratching on forearm while sleeping, frowning whenever I'm concentrating on something, frowning again when I'm on the road alone etc. But I can't connect them to anybody genetically. And none of these exactly resemble habits of my ancestors or even brothers and sisters. Thankfully, people who know everything and understand everything hardly go beyond my face and try to disentangle any thread in identifying other similarities.
The only similarity that convinces me of genetic acquisition of traits (in my case) is that of the natures of my father and me. There are some observations made by T, my cousin. A lot of my gestures, according to T, are carbon-copies of my father's. My ways of reading books in a half-lying posture with my elbow flexed on bed supporting the weight of upper half of my body, of holding pens and brushes, of walking strongly trace up my genetic connection. Though I would like to raise a protest against the point of walking. However. Both of us can go on reading story books without noticing anyone around and often when we look up from the book, the person looks either terribly irritated or terribly surprised. But my father often listens to someone sitting in front without glancing at him/her and looking at every other corner of the room including the ceiling, whereas I look right at the person talking, not hearing a word of what he/ she is saying and thinking about a completely different something. Then, we both are stubborn, partially dominating, headstrong, more into spending than saving (this link runs even farther; my grandfather was no less than a millionaire when it came to his ideas of spending), but my father is logical and I rely mostly upon my fantasy. We both are good with our suggestions (my father holds the crown though). And there may be some more, too. As a whole, if I'm visibly resembling anyone, that is my father more than my mother. Whenever I see Baba sitting or thinking or watching TV, I remember Awe's comment on K and K2, "see how gene runs".
observation and analysis.... thy name is science... (y)
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