Two women adopted as infants from different orphanages in Mumbai and raised near each other in the Netherlands discovered they were biological sisters after a DNA test in 2023. Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen first met in their teens at an adoption agency event, noticing striking similarities that led them to form a close bond despite losing contact for over a decade. Reconnecting through Facebook in May 2023, they confirmed the familial connection via DNA testing, leading to an emotional reunion where they acknowledged the long-held intuition about their deep bond.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-13,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
- Published
Theirs is a story straight out of a Bollywood film.
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Two Indian-born women in their 40s, adopted as babies by different families and raised near each other in the Netherlands, have now discovered they are biological sisters.
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they → bear → Netherlands
Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen, born in the early 1980s, were adopted from two different orphanages in the western Indian city of Mumbai within months of their birth.
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Geltink → bear → birth
When they first met in their early teens at an event hosted by the adoption agency their parents had used, they were struck by the uncanny similarities in their appearance and mannerisms.
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they → meet → appearance
Meena, now 43, remembers the day clearly.
"
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Meena → remember → day
All the adopted children were brought together to hang out and bond and have dinner.
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children → adopt → dinner
Both Meena and Minal were with friends who noticed how similar they looked.
"
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they → notice → friends
They said, 'Look at yourselves in the mirror'.
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"And I was like, 'Oh my God, she has my nose!
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We have the same laugh'.
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"At dinner, I kept looking at her the whole time," Meena told the BBC from her home in the Netherlands.
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Meena → keep → Netherlands
The following day, the girls exchanged telephone numbers and addresses and promised to keep in touch.
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girls → exchange → touch
Even though there was no indication they were related by blood, their connection was instant, and for years they wrote each other letters, often addressing each other as "Sis" because "we felt that way".
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we → be → Sis
They wrote about school, friends, boys, going out and dancing.
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They → write → school
They told each other about the sports they played and discussed music, discovering they both loved Backstreet Boys.
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they → tell → Boys
Then 15 years ago, they lost contact.
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they → lose → contact
Minal had moved to France.
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Minal → move → France
And Meena had recently had her first child and got busy.
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Meena → have → child
In 2017, Meena attended another meeting of adoptees from India where she heard about DNA testing and decided to take a test herself.
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she → attend → test
But she never found any matches and earlier this year, deleted the app because her phone storage was full.
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storage → find → app
Then on 20 May, Meena received a message from Minal on Facebook.
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Meena → receive → Facebook
"'Remember me?' she asked.
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she → remember → me
Minal had taken a DNA test in April while visiting her parents in the Netherlands and attached a screengrab of her test result.
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Minal → take → result
"I reinstalled the app.
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I → reinstall → app
I was so nervous I entered wrong passwords 10 times before I was able to log in," Meena says.
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"I had a 'full sister' which means we shared the same biological mother and father," Meena explains.
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Meena → have → mother
"It was like I had an adrenalin shot.
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I cried.
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Minal was my missing puzzle piece I had waited so long for.
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We had called each other sister.
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On a fine sunny day in August the old friends met for the first time since discovering they were sisters.
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they → meet → time
It felt like homecoming," Meena, now a mother to three children, says.
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Meena → feel → children
"For years, Minal and I had felt a big hole in our hearts.
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Minal → feel → hearts
We feel like we've been completed.
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we → feel → ?
Everything now feels like it's supposed to be."
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it → feel → ?
Reporting on their "emotional reunion", Reuters said "tears, hugs and laughter punctuated their meeting... followed by their first selfie together".
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tears → report → selfie
Minal, 44, who lives in France with her partner and two sons, told the agency that when her DNA results came in April, she had initially not realised her match was the same teenage girl who had clung to her when they first met 30 years ago.
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they → live → her
It only sank in when she looked at her photos on social media.
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she → sink → media
I couldn't believe it.
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"We were sisters the whole time," she said, "but we didn't know."
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we → say → ?
…and 18 more, not listed.
