Double Birthmarks: The Case Of Titu

By Carol Bowman and Steve Bowman

Double Birthmarks: The Case Of Titu

The case of Titu Singh that appeared in the London-based magazine Reincarnation International is one of the more fascinating cases of double birthmarks. This story was first broadcast in 1990 on the BBC TV news program "Forty Minutes." The case of Titu who named names and details of his own murder made for exciting TV drama. By the way, the resemblance to the case of Ravi Shankar is not surprising because cases of murdered victims returning in a new body to haunt their murderers is not an uncommon theme in these past life cases.

Titu Singh was two and a half years old when he began to tell his family of his other life in Agra, a city in northern India [and home of the Taj Mahal]. His memories were quite specific: he said that he had been the owner of a radio, TV and video shop, his name had been Suresh Verma, and he had had a wife named Uma and two children. He also said that he had been shot and then cremated, and his ashes had been thrown in the river. His parents didn't take him seriously at first, but his behavior puzzled them, for he often behaved as if he wasn't part of their family.

"Titu is just an ordinary child, but sometimes he says and does things that only adults do," said his father. Repeatedly, Titu would tell his parents that he was homesick and wanted to go back to Agra. Once, he became so insistent about leaving that he rolled his clothes into a bundle and threatened to leave home. Titu's older brother decided to travel to Agra to check out his young brother's claims. He found a video shop called Suresh Radio, which was run by a widow named Uma whose husband had been shot, just as Titu had described. The brother approached Uma and explained how his little brother claimed to be her deceased husband. This information made Uma feel very odd. She decided to visit the Singh family the next day and see what truth there was in this young child's report.

When the Verma family arrived unannounced, Titu was outside washing at the tap and spotted them first. He recognized them immediately and shouted to his parents that his "other family" had come. They invited the visitors to sit on the veranda, and Titu asked Uma to sit near him, which was an odd way for a five-year-old in India to relate to a grown woman. He asked about the children, and then stunned the widow by recounting the details of a family outing to a fair in a neighboring village where Suresh had bought her sweets, information that only she could have known. Titu later described burying gold in a hole in the house.

It was then arranged that Titu be taken to Agra. When he and his entourage arrived, it had been arranged for Suresh's two children to be playing among many other neighborhood children as a test for Titu. Titu recognized them immediately, singling them out from their playmates. Upon entering the video shop, Titu correctly identified changes made to the shop since Suresh's death.

The ongoing drama of Titu was played out by both families. Titu's parents had mixed feelings about his relationship with his former family. His mother, who had five older children, didn't mind him talking about his other parents and former family. She explained, "I feel as though we are all part of the same family. I am comforted by his childish loyalty, saying that although he has parents elsewhere we will always be his real parents. But Titu complains I wear old clothes. He says he used to buy Uma expensive saris." Titu's father said he was afraid that when Titu is older, he might break ties with them and go to live with his other family.

Suresh's parents are certain that Titu is their dead son Suresh reincarnated. His father said, "Titu clings to us with affection. Once in the street he came across a former nanny. She thought Titu was one of Uma's sons. Titu got annoyed at her saying, "Don't you know who I am?'" His former father added, "We talk to each other like father and son, but I don't encourage it too much because it upsets his real parents."

More details of the murder were confirmed. Titu accurately described how Suresh had been shot in the head at night while sitting in his car after arriving home from work. This was corroborated by Uma. The BBC TV cameras showed the autopsy report of Suresh Verma, which confirmed that he had been shot in the head and died from a bullet wound to the right temple. The autopsy showed the exact size and location of the wound, and the exit wound on the opposite side of Suresh's head.

Then they showed Titu's hair being shaved to reveal a birthmark, "a round, indented shape which coincided exactly with the location of the entry wound of the bullet that killed Suresh Verma. The camera also showed a second birthmark on the other side of Titu's head that coincided exactly with the exit wound."

Titu told more details of the murder to an Agra court and was able to "convince the authorities that he was the reincarnation of the murder victim." The outcome of the case was not given in this account, but a professor at Delhi University was quoted as saying, "Because of the police involvement, this is one of the very best documented cases of seeming reincarnation I have seen."

Since the publication of her groundbreaking book, CHILDREN'S PAST LIVES (Bantam, 1997), Bowman has become recognized as an international leader in reincarnation research. She documents spontaneous past-life recall in very young children, and her hundreds of American cases offer empirical evidence for reincarnation. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and many nation-wide documentaries and radio shows to spread the word that children's past life memories are a natural and beneficial phenomenon. Her second book, RETURN FROM HEAVEN (HarperCollins, 2001), documents same-family reincarnation: children who remember being the reincarnation of their own relatives. Please visit her website at http://www.carolbowman.com .