Babu entered the baby’s room after making sure that no one was around. He read the angelic face for a while before lifting the baby clumsily into his arms. It felt heavy. The baby was disturbed by this sudden movement in the middle of its slumber. The baby; although somewhat disturbed at having been woken from its slumber by unfamiliar hands, attempted to befriend Babu with the kind of sweet smile that can only be seen on a child's face, yet Babu was undeterred. He lifted the baby over his head, and the baby finding itself in such a precarious position started crying. Babu knew what he had to do before the baby's parents came running in. With all the force that he could muster, Babu hurled the baby at the wall. Its tiny head cracked open and it fell to the floor laying in a pool of its own blood. The contrast of red against the baby's pale face was quite striking. Babu looked at his work with content, before leaving the room through the window and out on the road. He went home, washed his face, hands, arms and legs and went off to sleep a satisfied soul.

Babu worked as domestic help at a couple of places in the locality. His father was a rickshaw puller and his mother sewed clothes for a living. He specifically chose homes with little children to work in. When in the morning, his father asked him where he went last night and why was he missing for so long, he just smiled and left for work. He was very happy today. His neighbor’s wife had just had a baby. The happy parents called everyone home that evening to come and bless the new born. Babu went with his parents with some sweets and a few presents for the week-old child. When everyone was in the verandah having dinner, Babu sneaked in through the back-door. Whenever he saw a new born, a sort of fanaticism took over him . A strange feeling made him uneasy and his skin began to crawl. His whole body started shaking. It was like a junkie wanting his coke to calm himself down or a fat little kid wanting to have a juicy cheese burger to stop the uncontrollable drooling. He looked into the pram. The dark-skinned baby looked at him with innocence and wonder. Babu extended his arms and held the neck of the child, gently at first, slowly increasing the pressure. The folks were still out and Babu had ample time to quench his thirst for fresh blood. He strangulated the baby with his right hand and continued to do so until the child’s tongue and eyes popped out. He licked the blood off the baby’s face, before joining the others for dinner. The chicken looked really nice and so did the apple pie. His dad gave him a curious look, questioning his absence, before being distracted by a joke someone had cracked. Babu’s face gleamed in the moonlight, as he greedily bit into a chunky leg piece, licking each of his fingers, one at a time.

His ears were waiting for the inevitable. An ultimate stamp on his professionalism. A wild shriek by the child’s mother shook everyone out there, who ran in to find the child in a horrific state. Her eyes were wide with shock and her entire body was trembling uncontrollably. Babu sat at the table smiling to himself a secret smile, never even looking up to see as to what was happening. He knew he had done a good job and there was no way the baby could have survived.

His next victims were two-year old twins, who had just moved into the locality with their parents. After getting two or three good references from neighbors, they hired Babu, who was more than willing to work for them. After all, it was a double treat. Once when the parents were out to shop for groceries, Babu’s euphoria was getting out of control. He always wanted to use the gleaming butcher knife hung in the kitchen. He went straight for it. Carrying the new, razor sharp knife in his hands, almost as if it were the Holy Grail, he made his way upstairs to the kids' room. He was itching to use it. He sliced off the ears and fingers first, before chopping off the tender toes. The little children were screaming their heads off, but that only excited Babu even more. With immaculate precision he went on to chop each and every part of the little one’s bodies, before bundling up the chunks into a long piece of cloth. He then shoved the bundle inside the back of the closet and went about his household chores. After finishing up his work he sat in the hall watching TV and left, leaving the doors unlocked.

The next morning the parents along with a van full of cops landed in front of Babu’s house. His father was washing his face when he heard the loud thuds on the door, as if someone was trying to break in. The cops stormed in before grabbing Babu by his collar, who was sleeping, and slapping him mercilessly. His mother started howling and pleading with the cops to spare Babu, who just stood there, taking all the beating without as much as flinching. The inspector just bawled at the bewildered parents saying that their son was a bloody killer, a merciless, cold blooded murderer.  The cops dragged him into the van even as his parents stood motionless, not knowing what to do or say.

Babu confessed to killing 11 infants in the past three months. Shockingly audacious, he described each of his killings in gory detail. When the press reporters questioned the cops about the crimes, Inspector Kumar said that Babu spoke little, often throws hair-raising smiles and asks for cookies from whoever interrogates him. When a local psycho-analyst was called in, he said Babu Prima facie appears to be a sadist who seems to derive pleasure out of inflicting injuries to others, but added that nothing could be concluded without studying Babu’s psycho-bio-socio-cultural surroundings. He added that Babu doesn’t seem to have a sense of right or wrong, and an in-depth study needs to be done to find out the reason behind the accumulation of aggression and hatred in some one so young. Next day, the headline in the newspaper screamed, “Police Say 10-year-old Boy Is A Serial Killer.”