Born with eight limbs and two torsos fused at the hips, Lakshmi Tatma was named after—and worshipped from birth as the reincarnation of—the Hindu goddess of wealth and fertility.  Now, two years after the ground-breaking operation which separated her from her parasitic twin, Lakshmi’s a happy four-year old and has just started school:

‘When I think of the way she was, never in a million years would Lakshmi have been able to go to school or have the life she does today,’ said her mother Poonam, 26.  ‘All the things she’s capable of now were impossible two years ago.  ‘I often try to think what she might be like today if she hadn’t had the operation—she couldn’t even sit up before and now she runs around like other children.

And while Lakshmi can now play cricket and hang out with friends, her doctors are just getting started.  Lakshmi still requires a number of operations, ranging from spine correction to the creation of buttocks, which, because she was connected in the womb to her “twin,” never managed to form.
 

 
The Little Girl Who Had Eight Limbs And Was Worshipped As A Deity Starts School