Little Alimuthu can’t understand what’s happening to him. He realises he’s going to a new home, which people say is his — with a man and a woman they say are his father and mother. Yet, he does not understand the language they speak — and they, loving as they are, call him Manikandan, a name he doesn’t recognise.

In his tiny life of four years, Alimuthu has had two names, two sets of parents, two homes and two identities. Now, the law has chosen one of his two lives for him to live.

Alimuthu’s story began in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. On May 11, 2008, the second son of city residents Shanker and Menaka — Alimuthu, then Manikandan — was kidnapped. A case was registered, but the police could make no headway. Shanker and Menaka were left heartbroken.

Also in the summer of 2008, across the border in Kerala’s Ernakulam, boat-breaking contractor Nasser and his wife Zeenat were hunting for a man who had, two months ago, promised to bring them a child to adopt.

This man had contacted one of Nasser’s employees, Arumugam, and Arumugam’s brother-in-law Sekhar, and offered to get Nasser and Zeenat a child to adopt in return for Rs 35,000. The desperate, childless couple had agreed — and given the man Rs 20,000 as advance.

The man, however, brought no child to their home. He used to stay in the same neighbourhood as Arumugam and Sekhar — he vanished from there. Arumugam and Sekhar began looking for him and, finally, two months later, caught him. They demanded either the promised child or Nasser’s money. The man asked for a little more time.

... contd.