And with nobody coming forward to take two motherless girls in their care, the feisty 13-year-old has already charted out a path for herself and her 10-year-old sister, Sudakshi: Become a lawyer and fight the injustices heaped on women like their mother.

Meenakshi Kaur had married against the wishes of her parents. The day she came to live with Ramesh, who belonged to a different faith, they closed her out of their lives. She coped with the rejection until the seemingly trivial differences between her and Ramesh became too great and resulted in her being shown the door.

That was three years ago. The mother-daughters trio were on their own ever since. Meenakshi took upsmall jobs to pay for the children's education and legal redressal.

This went on until June 19 when Meenakshi was admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital with 25 per cent burns, mostly on her legs, sustained while lighting a stove.

Mansi feels, as do the police, that her mother's life could have been saved. ``That she died about 25 days later proves that her condition was not critical. Had proper care been taken and the doctor's advice followed strictly, she would have been saved,'' a police official said. The injured woman had just her two small daughters by her side right through her stay in hospital and the lack of care obviously took its toll.

Today, two days after Meenakshi's death and after much persuasion by the police, her paternal relatives finally agreed to claim the body and perform the last rites. Mansi, who learnt of her mother's death yesterday at their one-room tenement in Paloura, where she was convalescing, rushed to hospital to find her sister having been taken away bynurses to prevent any extreme reaction in the small child.

Mansi wants her father to take them home now, refusing to go to any ashram or trust. ``When my father is alive, why should I go to a trust? If papa doesn't want to keep us, he should pay our expenses. We are prepared to live here on our own'', she says determinedly.

The police are trying to get the girls' father to take them with him. ``I have had a talk with the father and will continue pressing him to see reason,'' says Tejinder Singh, SHO of Domana Police Station. But the girls say their father still wants them to go to some welfare organisation. ``I flatly refused when he made this offer today evening at the police station,'' says Mansi.

The children are staying alone, going without dinner today, mourning the loss of their mother. And the near-total absence of affection in their lives. ``Even the neighbours were indifferent. Mummy remained tense, caring for us, fighting legal battles. Papa almost never showed any affection,'' recalls Mansi,studying in class IX at Durga Shishu Mandir, Janipur.

And like her elder sister, Sudakshi, in class VI at Ambedkar Memorial Academy, Poonch House, also wants to fight for poor, aggrieved women by becoming a lawyer. ``We saw our mother cribbing about the lawyer demanding more money to fight her battle for justice. She couldn't secure justice in her life. We would not like to see any other woman suffer like that,'' says Mansi, echoing the feelings of her younger sister.