The escape
"You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down."
-Charlie Chaplin
"Didi, where are we going?" A little girl of about five-six years voiced the question present in the two other girls' minds. The excitement of traveling on a train for the first time, waning slowly.
"Didi, will we be back before dinner time? Because if we don't, then Amma will punish us," inquired the other girl who looked identical to the first girl. They were identical twins, but the latter was obviously the more talkative one.
"And I don't want to get punished." She added in a small voice. Even though she was more cheerful of the two, years of beatings have resulted in her fearfulness.
"Amma can't punish us, not anymore," replied the older girl, looking through the window as trees and houses passed by in a blur. Amma would definitely never hurt them, not if she could help it.
The word 'Amma', in literal terms, meant 'mother'; but the woman was far from a mother figure. The woman who was supposed to be the orphans' caretaker was the one to force them into begging and child labor. All for earning money to quench her thirst for greed.
"Now, tell me, who all are hungry?" The older girl asked, distracting the younger girls from the fears etched in their minds since their childhood days.
