Baby with Two Faces Hailed as a Goddess

One-month-old Lali is already a very special child. Born with two faces, she has four sets of eyes, two noses and two mouths. In scientific terms her condition is called "craniofacial duplication". However, in rural India where she was born, she is a miracle - the reincarnation (re-birth) of a Hindu Goddess known as Durga.

Durga (pictured below) is one of the most powerful incarnations of god in the Indian mythology. She is always destroying evil and protecting mankind from pain and suffering. As a result, hundreds of rural hindu worshippers are making the trip to the small village of Saini , 25 miles north of New Delhi, India to pay their respects and be blessed by little Lali.

Craniofacial duplication, the scientific condition that Lali has, is caused by a protein called Sonic Hedgehog Homolog (SHH), which determines the width of facial structures in human beings.

If too much is produced, it widens the facial structures so much that it ends up duplicating them. Unfortunately this extremley rare condition also leads to complications of other body organs.

Doctors, who examined Lali when she was born, say that all her organs appear to be normal. Lali too seems to be take her double features in stride - she opens and shuts her four eyes at the same time and drinks her milk with one mouth, while and sucking her thumb with the other!

However, since there are no known cases of people with this condition having survived more than twelve months, doctors are not sure if Lali will be okay going forward. We will keep our fingers crossed that this little cutie will continue to do well.