There are no takers yet for one-year-old Anbu.
In Tamil, Anbu means love. But there are no takers yet for one-year-old Anbu, whose parents, both rag-pickers, were run over on Sunday night by a taxi.
The little boy's mother, 28-year-old Aishwarya, was pregnant. She and her husband were sleeping on a pavement in Velacherry area, an IT hub, when the taxi, a vehicle contracted by a local call centre, had run amok. The driver, off duty, had been out on a joy ride with two friends. All three were drunk, the police said.
Anbu's parents, and a third, a woman, had died on the spot. Anbu, who was sleeping on a nearby cart, got saved.
The bodies of his parents are yet to be cremated. After a day at the Home run by the Indian Council for Child Welfare, Anbu was taken to the Child Welfare Committee's office at Royapuram from where, he was shifted to another children's home. And he would be there till someone turns up to claim him.
"We will wait for a few months and see if any family members come," said Dr Roseline, a member of the committee. "We will also advertise. If no one comes, we would list him for adoption."
The men responsible for the tragedy had been arrested on Monday. Investigators said it was a clear case of drink-driving and over-speeding.
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 percent - were victims of drink-driving.