Reportage: Bijoy Venugopal. Photograph: S K Kotian

Human cloning may be on IIT Bombay’s long-term agenda, but the picture on your screen is not a result of the experiments.

Atish Das Sarma (right), who also specialises in computer science, is a fourth-year student of the dual degree programme, and now lives in the hostel room once occupied by his twin Anish. He will complete his degree next year, and friends say he too may turn out a winner.

“If he collects the degree instead of me, I don’t think anyone would tell!” laughs Anish.

The twins, who studied in the same class at Bangalore’s National Public School and appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination together, share a close bond. “We understand each other very well but to say that if you hit one the other feels the pain is going too far!” says Anish.

“People ask me how it feels to grow up with a twin and I always say I don’t know how it feels to not grow up with one,” says Atish, who his friends describe as equally bright but more fun loving. “At academics, Anish has been better than me but our parents never compared us. If there is a distinction, I don’t like to accept it.”

IIT blood, it appears, runs thick.

The twins’ father D D Sarma, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and mother Abha, an information technology professional, are both graduates of IIT Kanpur. Their younger brother Akash is a class nine student at the National Public School, Bangalore.