Son of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani

Ten year old Chamdi has spent his life in in orphanage in Bombay. He loves the smell of the rain, the red of the bougainvilleas and the statue of Jesus in the orphange prayer room.
He clings to a fantasy of Kahunsha "the city of no sadness" which is his Bombay. When he hears that the orphange will close, he decides go off on his own to explore the city of his dreams and to search for his long-lost father.

The Bombay he finds is dirty and mean. Desperate with hunger, Chamdi is taken in by two street children, Guddi and Sumdi, who lead him into the brutal life of the city's homeless and into the web of Bhai, the don who takes money the children earn.

When the three young people make a plan to escape the streets, the find themselves caught up
Hindu Muslim violence that engulfs the city. This is a story of the terrible reality of children in the streets in Bombay and the ways they find to cope with impossible circumstances.