They were all Fooled

One of the things I beat myself silly over is the fact that I am terrible at identifying (not so obvious) similarities between children and parents. Whenever someone shows a picture of a new born to their friends, one can be absolutely sure to hear (even if there is no truth to it) "Oh she looks like her mother", "He has his father's eyes" etc. But, not always from me. Unless, absolutely obvious, you will only get a "He/She looks cute" or "Great picture". Apparently, that does not go down well with people (my wife included) who time and again have ridiculed me on my inability to identify these basic (according to them) similarities. I could just start pretending and say something trivial like, "Hey, he has your forehead", or "Wow, he has black eyes like you", but the scientist in me somehow refuses to just make stuff up or cave in. The more I think of it, I feel its a looney ballooney scam that someone came up with several eons ago and it has stuck through the ages. According to me, a loose statement like, "She has your features", always holds true in one way or another without adding any value to the conversation you are having. I am sure, there a few not so gifted individuals as myself out there or at least I hope so.

Today, I read in the news that some 56 years ago, two girls born at this hospital in Oregon on the same day were mixed up. Both sets of parents (and relatives) were apparently oblivious to the switch and were none the wiser until some key revelations and DNA testing proved it to be the case after almost 6 decades. Now, I am no shrink and I don't know the emotional fallout or psycho-socialogical repurcussions of this information. I don't want to insensitive to those affected (fortunately, no one reads my blog). I don't know who stands to blame in a court of law, who should be sued etc. But if it were up to me, on behalf of the ungifted,I would say, blame the extended family members and friends who probably stood around the new born babies and said, "wow, she looks so much like you", "the resemblence is unmistakable", "she has her father's brow" etc. etc.