Five-year-old Manisha of Bangalore in southern India, who saw her parents commit suicide and herself survived a strangulation attempt by her own mother, is now recovering in hospital.

On Wednesday, the child looked better but was still in a state of shock, reports said.

Dr Karunakara, attending to the child, said, “She is doing fine and is responding to treatment. In a day or two, she will be shifted out of the Intensive Care Unit. However, Manisha keeps crying, probably remembering the horrifying incidents and it will take some time for her to come out of the trauma.”

Her parents, Nagesh, 37, and Sudha, 35, seemed to be a happily married couple who had everything one could want — a house of their own and a financially-sound future.

When Nagesh did not report for duty for two days, one of his colleagues turned up Tuesday to find out what was happening. None answered the doorbell. Then he and some neighhours broke the window panes to see Sudha’s body hanging from the ceiling. The child could be seen sleeping in the hall.

On arrival at the scene, the police were preparing to break in, but the child herself opened the door.

“With a deadpan expression, she pointed towards the bedroom. The child’s lips were dry and she looked devastated. We rushed her to the hospital,” said a neighbour.

Manisha — though in a state of shock — managed to narrate the incident in bits and pieces to her relatives, it is said.  According to her, the couple had had a heated argument. Though she couldn’t say when, it should have been Monday, others believe.