A pair of 11-year-old twins from Hounslow have made it into a super exclusive society for geniuses. Krish and Keira Arora might be Britain’s smartest twin siblings – with a combined IQ of 314.
These mini-Einsteins, who attend their local state primary school, are already programming robots and writing author-level poetry. But they still like to spend their evenings playing with friends and gaming on their Nintendo Switch.
“Its a very proud feeling. Sometimes you think about it and you feel they’ve done something impossible because they’re so young, so it’s remarkable – we never thought that something like this would happen,” says mum, Mauli.
Maths whizz Krish has an IQ of 162, arguably higher than Einstein’s which is estimated to have been around 160. Meanwhile, his creative sister Keira, with an IQ of 152, is an avid reader who writes beautiful poetry – that is when she isn’t performing as the lead in her school rock band.
“Krish was doing things very early on which kids of his age would not do. He was reading very early, so when he was four he was fluently reading and was doing complex decimal divisions around that time. His spellings were also really good for his age. So we did see the sparks,” says Mauli.
“Keira’s creative side was really good. She attended a few creative writing workshops and whenever she went the feedback was always that she wrote like an author, so she has a very emotional soft touch to her writing. She creates the environment and she puts a lot of emotion in the story that she writes,” she adds.
Krish was first to join Mensa last year in November at age 10, inspired by his idol Young Sheldon – the lead character and child genius in the Big Bang Theory’s prequel series. Twin sister Keira followed in his footsteps earlier this month aged 11.
Both of the twins are also musically talented, as well as academically gifted kids. Keira loves to perform once a month as the lead singer in her school rock band.
“We play famous songs – the last one was Final Countdown. We have more of a pop genre. We’re doing Diamonds by Rihanna next. My favourite singer is Mariah Carey,” she says.
Singing makes Keira feel “happy and confident” in herself. “It makes me feel good. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced stage fright,” she adds. She is the more extroverted and “cheeky” of the pair, says Mauli.
Gifted piano player Krish has ‘perfect pitch’ – meaning he can recreate the sound of any song he listens to. His favourite musician is Chopin but he also enjoys playing both jazz and contemporary ballads.
“I really like playing music. It makes me feel calm and peaceful – music is something I really enjoy,” he says, after playing a flawless rendition of Chopin’s Waltz on the family piano.
Despite their countless hobbies and passions, Krish and Keira are not easily distracted from their career goals. At age 11 they both have a crystal clear idea of what they want to do when they’re older.
“I’d like to be a lawyer when I grow up. I think commercial law because I’m very good at negotiating with people and I think I’d excel in commercial law. I feel like I want to do my rock band as a hobby but not as a job,” says Keira.
Krish, who has already conquered Year 9 maths, adds: “I want to do something related to mathematics because it’s my favourite subject. Probably a mathematician or an actuary.”
“Sometimes at school when we do maths I put my hand up they say Krish, not you, don’t answer. But I still have a lot of things to learn, I haven’t done A Levels yet but I’m very privileged to know I’m really smart – smarter than Einstein,” he says.
Engineer parents Mauli and Nischal have a hands-on approach to parenting. Krish and Keira are free to follow their own interests and passions but there are some family rules which the couple think has helped nurture their children’s academic gifts.
“We sleep early and get up early. Both lights are off by 9.30pm. Video gaming is something we put restrictions on a lot. We also try to see what they’re watching and ensure the age rating is closely followed,” she says.
“After school they come back, they eat, take a break for some time. They then do something productive for an hour – French or economics, something where they are learning. Then they have an hour off doing whatever they want to do on their iPads and then she likes going out with her friends but Krish does something like play piano,” she adds.
Later this year Krish will begin his secondary studies at the UK’s best grammar school, Queen Elizabeth, in Barnet. His sister Keira will also begin her studies at Tiffin Girls’ School, another very highly-rated selective school in Kingston.
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