The Fire 1

The Fire For centuries, it matchlessly stood This Nair baron’s mansion made entirely of wood, Which but carried a curse from an old woman, or worse, From the chief carpenter who was sort of done in By the landlord with whom he had a run-in Till, one day with the rising sun, the eldest of the sons Soaked a brand in kerosene and the set the edifice on fire Which burned for days to be bemoaned for decades Hoping to end the in-fighting and tension That erupted on questions of partition Only to be followed by a long legal battle And the family fortunes falling like skittles. S.Jagathsimhan Nair, 19 apr 12 For Rick Parise’s “FIRE” contest Ps: The first curse was from a poor old woman. One of the trees used for the construction was hers. It was forcibly felled against her wish. So it carried her curse. The second was from the chief carpenter who those days fixed the location of the proposed house’s first corner-stone , which , according to the age-old science of buildings was believed to have a bearing on the fortunes of the land lord as well as the carpenter. In this particular case the landlord too happened to be an adept in that science. Out of some grudge, and enjoying unquestioned power, the land lord is believed to have forced the poor carpenter to fix a spot for the first corner-stone which would bring the carpenter death before the construction was completed. It happened that way in this case.