Supriya L, aged 12 years, studying in class 6 in Shastri English Higher Primary School.

She’s already a grown-up for her parents, Supriya says. To back the claim, she adds: “I help with most domestic chores. I wash vessels, and some times, clothes too.” She cooks too — “anna sambhar. But dal and rice are my favourite”, she says. Her father Lawrence works as an electrician and mother, Lydia Mangala, is a domestic help. “They give me everything,” she says.

Children’s Day sounds like a day when she could play all day. “That would be ideal,” she says but doesn’t think it makes much of a difference. “Even on other days, I play with my friends anyway. Hide and seek, hopscotch and sometimes, the skipping rope,” she says. Television, to her, is “Pogo and Chutti TV”.

Supriya aims to be a doctor. Why? “Just like that. It will make my parents very happy,” she says.