At Sree Chitra Home, the minor girl rescued from Parassala where she performed circus on the streets tries hard to keep her composure as she narrates how she reached the city.
Wringing her hands repeatedly, looking at the ground or in front of her, the girl says the elderly woman and the two youngsters with her at Parassala were her grandmother, her elder brother and sister-in-law. They had reached Parassala from Nagercoil, but her parents are in Chennai along with her other siblings where they too perform street circus. Of the three boys presented in front of the CWC, one, around 15 years old, is her maternal uncle and the other two are her cousins.
Even as an odd tear threatens to trickle down as she names her family members, she quickly dabs at it with her dupatta.
The family, she says, comes to Chennai every year to earn money and then goes back home to Chhattisgarh for a couple of months where they have close relatives. Though her entire community is into street circus, she says her paternal grandparents also have some farmland.
“When can I go home?”
The girl's narrative is punctuated by long gaps, and at the end she has only one thing to ask, “When can I go home?”
