The Happy Pod: The best friends who turned out to be sisters

Holly Gibbs (0:00)

This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs, and in this edition, meet Meena and Minal.

Meena Geltink (0:13)

It's like all those 30 years we've been apart, we've never been apart. It's like we're picking up after that, and it feels really strange, but very good.

Minal Tijssen (0:24)

It feels like home.

Holly Gibbs (0:25)

The girls who became best friends, only to discover they are actually biological sisters.

Fabio Chavez (0:31)

Also on this podcast, What we do with this musical project, This project is not just about teaching music. We're bringing to the world's attention this place, these kids.

Holly Gibbs (0:44)

The orchestra who play instruments made from rubbish. Plus the grandmother and grandson duo healing their relationship through travel, and, When you think about it, it's pretty logical.

Claire (0:57)

I mean, when we're out of the office, it's just empty space and a lot of space and that can be comfy.

Holly Gibbs (1:05)

The offices in France, which welcome people experiencing homelessness to stay.

We start with a remarkable DNA discovery, which revealed that two best friends were actually biological sisters. Meena and Meenal were both born in India. They were then adopted by different families and raised near each other in the Netherlands. It was only when they met by chance that they realized their similarities, as Amelia Clarke reports.

Minal Tijssen (1:38)

This is my sister.

Holly Gibbs (1:41)

Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen were both born in the early 1980s. They were adopted from two different orphanages in Mumbai within months of their birth. They first met in their early teens at an event hosted by an adoption agency their parents had used and were struck by their uncanny similarities in their appearance and mannerisms. They promised to stay in touch and spent years writing letters to each other, often addressing each other as cis despite not knowing the truth about their relation.

Minal and Meena lost contact after Minal moved to France and Meena had a baby until earlier this year when Minal decided to take a DNA test.

Minal Tijssen (2:20)

I was home alone and then I got the pop-up on my phone and it said your results from DNA in my health is ready. So I opened it and then there was written Meena's sister.

And I didn't realise it was Meena that I know.

Holly Gibbs (2:40)

Minal messaged Meena on social media asking if she remembered her. Meena had tried to do a DNA test in 2017 but was told she had no matches. But the test Minal did confirmed the girls were 100% sisters, which means they share the same biological mother and father. Last month the girls met for the first time since finding out they were related.

Minal says it's what she's dreamed of.

Minal Tijssen (3:08)

I've always been surrounded by many people who love me and who took care of me. But something inside of me, I've always felt very lonely. And yeah, I always hoped to find some biological family somewhere.

And I always said, yes, I would love to see if there's my biological mother, but even more brothers or sisters. So and now this happens. So inside, it was like now I don't feel alone anymore.

Holly Gibbs (3:43)

For Meena, it's as if no time has passed.

Meena Geltink (3:46)

It's like all those 30 years we've been apart.

We've never been apart. It's like we're picking up after that. And it feels really strange, but very good.

Minal Tijssen (3:58)

It feels like home.

Meena Geltink (3:59)

Yeah. Yeah.

Minal Tijssen (4:01)

It's like we don't live together. We have very different lives. But when it's like, when I see you, it's like, I'm home.

Meena Geltink (4:10)

I feel finally complete. And that's the puzzle piece in my heart. And yeah, I know that it's a lot, but it feels really good. Yeah.

Holly Gibbs (4:23)

Since finding out, Meena and Minal have spoken almost every day. They've met each other's husbands and children and the families they were adopted into.

One day, they hope to go back to the orphanage where the story began. But for now, the sisters say the fact they're siblings is something that is still sinking in.

That was Amelia Clarke reporting. To Paraguay next, and an orchestra which plays rubbish, quite literally. All of their instruments are made of scrap found at landfill. Branca Lessa de Sa has been finding out more.

Branca Lessa de Sa (5:01)

That's Wiwi Lopez playing his violin. It sounds just like any other violin, but it looks distinctly different.

Rather than the usual mahogany wood, Wiwi's instrument is a haphazard combination of colors and textures. And that's because it's made from rubbish.