Fire

I was pretty young, young enough to have quite a few curiosities and not to be trusted with dangerous things, like say a matchbox. I was debarred from touching it but had ample demonstrations of how it could be used. It looked interesting.

One day Aaji went to take a bath and I was identifying next curiosity to satisfy. I sighted the matchbox! Couple of trials and I was expert in using it. It still did not excite me enough. The light should be bigger to admire. I started hunting down something to light! Kitchen, Hall, ... nothing!

I wandered into balcony. Perfect! There was this open cuboard, wooden!! With a cloth piece hanging in front!!! With newspapers!!!! I quickly went to work. A cotton cloth lights up pretty quick you know! It was amazing! Suddently I realized, it is out of control. I panicked! What should I do?

I ran up to bathroom and knocked on door. 'Aag! Aag!!' was all I could describe. Aaji sensed the urgency. She came out as soon as she could put on some descent amount of cloths. In front of her was the cupboard with its content on fire. She did not have time to collect water to throw at it. I was useless. She practically used her bare hands to douse the fire. She finally succeeded. It was the burns on her hands that saved me from a big beating. She resumed her bath, and made me stand in inverse U position holding my toes till she finished her bath. She took a looong time that day!