Daddy was deposed but can you make that out?

In her heart is Salman Khan, preferably shirtless. ‘‘I love him. I hope I get to meet him and fall in love and marry so that I can continue to live in India. He is an African trapped in an Indian’s body’’, she says in giggles.

When not daydreaming or dancing, the girls are planning their future — Blossom a post-graduate degree in International Relations towards a job with UN (and wouldn’t that be an irony?) while Avenette hopes for a job with CNN after a master’s degree in journalism.

So why India now? ‘‘Our father loves India and sent us here not only because he felt we would be safe but also because in a country like this you have to fend for yourself’’, says Avenette. Though happy here, the sisters say they were disappointed initially. ‘‘From all the movies I watched, I thought I was coming to a place filled with gardens and flowers. But I like it the way it is,’’ said Blossom.

What it is is a long way from Liberia. The sisters — who’ve been here for two years — spent a traumatic summer at home in Monrovia. Beyond the picnics and tennis they enjoyed, there was a war — the rebel movement against Taylor — which permeated even their cordon.

‘‘We could hear gunshots and bombing around us. We would go into town with the guards to see the violence. It broke our hearts to see people fleeing the country with their luggage in one hand and children in the other’’, says Blossom.

But her loyalties are clear, she wears it on her back: a tattoo that says ‘‘I will die for my President’’. Many have, sadly, which is what makes Taylor such a wanted man — a close rival to Saddam Hussein on the front pages of Western papers through the long, hot summer.

Blossom defends her father vigorously. ‘‘He is an exceptionally strong human being, a generous man. The allegations against him are false.’’

Blossom and Avenette will head home again, later this month. Home is no longer Liberia but Kalaba, a small Nigerian town on the Cameroon border where their father reportedly lives. As for Taylor, he will visit India to attend his daughters’ graduation early next year.

You can hear the bounty-hunters packing their bags.