The car that ran over Anbu's parents.
Two days after his parents died after an inebriated taxi driver ran them over on a Chennai pavement, it appears that one-year-old Anbu may soon find a home. His aunt Bharati wants to bring up the little boy, now that her own children are all grown up.
Anbu's parents - both rag-pickers - lived on a pavement in Chennai's IT hub Velacherry. On the wee hours of Monday, both were sleeping on the pavement. They never woke up.
The taxi driver and his two friends, out on a joy ride, crushed them. Police said all three were drunk. Booked for homicide not amounting to murder, they are currently in police net.
Today, Anbu's paternal grandmother Jaya and aunt approached the police to collect the bodies.
"Now I have lost both my brothers. My son, too, is married and has a child," said Bharathi, a flower-seller. "Let me bring up this child as my own in memory of my brother."
But Anbu's future is by no means decided. Officials of the Child Welfare Committee, who are looking after him now, will decide what is in the child's best interest.
"Though we will allow the child to be with the family for final rites, we will decide who would bring up the child only after verifying all facts," said Dr Roseline, a member of the committee which directed the boy to be sent to a children's home.
"Only if we are convinced that the child would have a better life, we would hand over him to the family," said Sheela Charles Mohan, another member. Sometimes, for the sake of monetary compensation, many show interest in bringing up such children, she said.
Anbu's father Arumugam had got married without the knowledge of the family, and that had soured the ties. Things had got somewhat better after the child was born, and he started visiting his mother and sister again, Bharati said. His wife, 28-year-old Aishwarya, was pregnant at the time of her death.
Tamil Nadu has a poor road safety record. Over the last two years, nearly 32,000 people died in road accidents across the state. Around 1,900 of them - six per cent - were victims of drink-driving. Most often, the victims are children and homeless people.