Twinning by design: TN brothers get into NID with top grades

Time of India

15-07-2025

Ahmedabad: The naked eye can barely tell them apart, but Kartik and Vignesh Rajan, both 19, try hard to be different. One is left-handed and sports round glasses, while the other is right-handed and prefers rectangular frames.
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But the differences stop there — the twins are among India's top scorers in the Design Aptitude Test (DAT) of the National Institute of Design (NID) and have secured admission to the Bachelor of Design (BDes) programme at the same campus.
"All through our academic life, we have scored identically. This frustrated school authorities to the extent that in several exams, we were made to sit in different exam halls. But our scores remained similar, if not identical," says Kartik.
Vignesh says that they have spent their entire school life together, and much to their delight they will be spending four years of college together too.
Sons of a computer engineer father who works in the e-learning segment, and homemaker mother, the Chennai twins did not have design on their minds till Class 11. Both chose to pursue science after scoring well in Class 10.
Vignesh says he wished to pursue MBBS and become a neurosurgeon.
"But medicine did not pique Kartik's interest. Once I realised that, we decided design may be a better choice as I was good at sketches and drawings," he says.Kartik, at that time, was eyeing a UG programme in architecture and was preparing for the National Aptitude Test in Architecture. "While watching Vignesh prepare, I realised that the courses were similar.
I thus decided to give it a go," he adds. The parents were supportive and wholeheartedly embraced their change in career plans.
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After preparing for the Design Aptitude Test for a year, the two cracked the exam with top grades and fulfilled their mother's dream. "The result delighted us. We both selected NID Ahmedabad," says Kartik.
While Vignesh wishes to specialise in product design or graphic design, Kartik wants to explore photography. "Science has remained our passion, and we would love to do something that is at the intersection of design and science or technology, possibly in the medical field," he adds.
For Kartik, it is important to remain in India and work for India as he believes design is an important force for change.
NID Ahmedabad officials said that Kartik and Vignesh are among the few twin siblings to secure admission to the institution. "Often, twins do not share the same interest or do not clear the exams at the same time. So, we have rare instances of twins getting admission for the same course," said a senior official.
Meanwhile, the brothers also share a passion for the arts. They are both accomplished Bharatanatyam dancers and musicians in their own right. Vignesh says that right before the entrance exam, they were preparing for their arangetram performance (graduation ceremony) under the guidance of their guru KM Jayakrishnan. While Vignesh plays flute and saxophone, Kartik is a prolific guitarist.
Is being an identical twin challenging? The brothers say that it is both good and bad —while there is always your brother to have your back, it does not encourage many to approach them individually. "But NID is a different place. We have so many classmates, and we consciously try to move in different circles," says Vignesh, adding that they are slowly settling in at the Ahmedabad campus.