Amy and Ano's journey of discovery began when they were just 12 years old.
New Delhi:
A remarkably similar story of separation and reunion has emerged from the Eastern European country of Georgia, which could well be considered a real-life manifestation of Ramesh Sippy's 1972 Bollywood blockbuster Seeta Aur Geeta.
Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania, identical twins separated at birth and unknowingly living just miles apart in Georgia, found each other through a viral TikTok video and talent show.
Her story, reported by the BBC, sheds light on a much larger problem plaguing Georgia – the alarming number of babies stolen from hospitals and sold over the decades, a scandal that remains largely unresolved.
Amy and Ano's journey of discovery began when they were just 12 years old. Amy, engrossed in her favorite television show, Georgia's Got Talent, stumbled upon a dancing girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to her. Little did she know that the dancing woman was her long-lost sister.
Photo credit: facebook.com/ana.sartania.16
On the other hand, Ano received a TikTok video with a woman with blue hair who looked strikingly similar to her. It turned out that the woman in the video was her twin sister, Amy.
Aza Shoni, the twins' biological mother, fell into a coma in 2002 due to unknown birth complications. Gocha Gakharia, her husband, made a devastating decision – selling Ano and Amy to separated families.
Ano grew up in Tbilisi while Amy grew up in Zugdidi, both completely unaware of each other's existence. Although they competed in the same dance competition when they were 11 years old and viewers noticed the striking resemblance, the truth remained unclear.
Their lives ran parallel until the fateful TikTok video and subsequent reunion. But as the twins searched for answers to their own separation, they discovered a shocking reality – they were just two of thousands of babies stolen from Georgian hospitals and sold, with cases reported as recently as 2005.
According to the BBC report, the incident occurred two years ago on the Rustaveli Bridge in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, where Amy and Ano met for the first time since their separation 19 years ago.