*Fortune

YT

We cloak ourselves in our various ways -- nowadays, it's outright masks.  But, our clothes, as statements about who we are, how we see the world, what we expect of it -- or hair, or makeup, or tats and piercings or amputations.  

It's like there's a soul or a spirit, buried in flesh, like a pearl swarmed over by ants, or a dragon guarding its gold.  Two different things, is my point, that have to work together, spirit and flesh.  Well, it's worked so far.  We're not extinct.  

But sometimes it doesn't' work.  Either the spirit, soul, is vicious -- the word TOXIC is like WEAPONIZED, over-used and misapplied.  But vice, and vicious -- these are still respected.  ...either the spirit is sick, or the body.  

Sometimes the bodies we're born into aren't quite right.  This is the core doctrine of the transgender cult -- spirit in the wrong body.  But generally they have a great body -- whole and healthy.  Hale.  Bruce Jenner had a world-class body -- one of the truly very best in the world.  I can't speak, for Caitlyn.  I don't have a metric, no frame of reference.  

But sometimes spirits, babies, are born with what is obviously a wrong body.  It's not even judgmental to say it that way, unless it should be said to a tranz-able activist. I trust that it is very unlikely indeed that I should have such a conversation.  

In terms of reality, humor etc is inappropriate, and even bitterness toward God, mankind, parents, society -- it just seems like silence is the most appropriate response. What else is there? We see, and we speak or we are silent.

Saini, 25 miles east of New Delhi, India. The little girl, aged one month, named Lali, meaning "red". The condition is called craniofacial duplication, or diprosopus, and is exceedingly rare, but well documented.

Such infants can have surprising functionality. Little Lali ate with both mouths, and all four eyes blinked at the same time. Said the mother, Shushma Kumar Singh, "She's fed through one mouth and sucks her thumb with the other. We use whichever mouth is free to feed her."

Her parents refused any special medical treatment for the baby.


Doctors in New Delhi wanted to take a CT scan to determine the state of the infant's internal organs. The father, Vinod Kumar Singh, declined the offer. "I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said. "My baby is fine." At the time Singh was 23, a poor farm worker -- married in February of 2007. The village doctor, Brigdal Nagar, had grown exasperated with reporters. "She is very normal," the doctor once shouted, wagging a finger and shoving the father aside. "We don't need the media here. She's not an abnormal baby. It's just that she has two faces. And she's living a very normal life. And if she dies in the future, it's as God wishes."

The parents saw her as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess of power, Shakti, or alternatively as Durga, the fiery three-eyed deity of valor. They installed loudspeakers outside their home, that blared religious hymns all day.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village." Head of the council was Daulat Ram, who hoped for a temple to Durga. "I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter." The crowds of pilgrims dwindled, however, local curiosity was sated, and worshipers became rare.

Lali had a cleft pallet -- unreported if it was two clefts, she could not suck properly. Her nutrition was poor -- bottle-fed sugar solution and diluted milk.  Chronic vomiting and infection.  Medical attention was delayed due to extended family and headman discussion. Dehydration became severe, the parents took her to the hospital, against community advice. Her condition started to normalize, but six hours later her heart stopped -- two months old. A temple was built in her memory.  

On the other hand, 

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consider Lakshmi, here aged 2, of the state of Bahir, India. Analogous situation. Born with four arms and four legs, remnants of a parasitic twin, anacephalic.

Sometimes babies are born with only one body, and two brains.

An Egyptian girl, Manar Maged, victim of carniopagus parasiticus. The identical twin, Islaam, although having no body of her own could still smile, blink, look around and sleep independently, with a reportedly fully functional brain.  The twin was removed successfully, and died, of course, and Manar died a year later, of a brain infection.

Likewise with Rebeca Martinez of the Dominican Republic.

Manar bled to death after an 11-hour corrective operation.

As for Lakshmi, surgeons removed the limbs, transplanted a functioning kidney, and reconstructed the child's pelvis.


After recovering from the 27 hour surgery, Lakshmi was able to stand for the first time in her life, "which is remarkable," said chief surgeon Sharan Patil.

She was taken back to her rural village in eastern Bihar, where, earlier, she had been worshipped by some Hindus as an incarnation of the eponymous four-armed goddess of grace and fortune. After two years, however, she started going to school. No ... she started walking to school.

She developed scoliosis, which can deform and cripple. She had other problems as well -- no buttocks, bladder and intestinal issues, abnormal nerve connections to her spine, pelvic malformations. When she walked, it hurt.

But she walked.

What a pretty little girl.

J