At the crack of dawn, on September 1, Shehnaz Begum, 27, held her six-year-old daughter Soniyara's hand and trudged along the muddy lanes of Batarbari village in Assam's Barpeta district. The mother and daughter then got inside the autorickshaw of a family friend, Soyeb, and set out on a journey to the Public Health Centre in nearby Daulasal in Nalbari district.

While walking to Soyeb's house, somewhere in front of her, Shehnaz fancied, lay the moon on the horizon, and she and her daughter walking on it. This isn't exactly Shehnaz's dream but her daughter's. Ever since Soniyara told her parents about her dreams of becoming an astronaut, Shehnaz has often 'seen' her little angel walking on the moon.

“Early in the morning today, I rented my friend Soyeb’s autorickshaw and sent them to Nalbari to meet the health centre officials. I have asked them to show Soniyara's birth certificate and ask them what is wrong with it,” says 33-year-old Subal Ali, Soniyara's father.

Parents in, children out