Wednesday 11 September 2013

Genes, Genetics and Family

The inheritance of that lopsided smile, of a certain trill in your laugh, and how your hair tends to fall in stubborn little rings on the sides- these are tiny little proofs of genetics at work, because at sudden moments, like perhaps when you're looking at old photographs of yourself with your children some day, or when you're dressing up for a party and suddenly notice these quirks of yourself in the mirror, you realise that you were once nothing but a single cell packed with DNA carrying several more peculiar traits such as these..
We are mirrors of our parents and our grandparents; maybe the mirror is a bit skewed, a little less polished, but I do believe we reflect, more or less accurately, who we have been raised by.
Little mannerisms and preferences that we have, like choosing to sleep flat on our tummies at night, or having our parathas with ketchup, or our choices in music, these things aren't as original to our personalities as we might want to believe. They've been bequeathed down to us and pumped into our blood by several others who came before us and lent us their last names.
I've always been so enamoured by the fact that I have my father's nose, and my mother's voice, and a thousand other little things borrowed and hidden in little bundles of twisted DNA strands. It's realizations such as these that ground you, make you aware of the fact that you're just a puzzle made up of so many different pieces that come from all over your family tree.
The unlikeliest sources might be the origin of a personality trait of yours that you value most.
Have you ever wondered where those fingernails came from, or where you got the colour of your eyes from, or where your love for karela stems from?
Oh, how I wish we had technology clever enough to decipher these little clues that add to the bigger picture!
The world would make a lot more sense then, and perhaps we'd be a whole lot more comfortable in our own skins.

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