Wooden stool wisdom

This jaded bundle of wooden sticks that has reached a stage at which it cannot be retrieved from extinction entered into my domain 63 years back with much fanfare in the shape of a sturdy wooden stool with its four legs broadbased at the resting point and slightly narrowing down at the top, suggesting safety to its users.

Mine was an old tiled house in a narrow street wherein the arrival of this wooden furniture was the first of its kind. Those days when handspun mats were used as seats for guests, very few possessed wooden stools. This prestigious possession of mine, the value of which was just Rs 2, caught the attention of my neighbours. It even stimulated my vanity as it elicited the envy of my neighbours. Chairs, almirahs, benches, tables, sofas and even the computer have added to the acquisitions in my house as these are so common these days. But curiously the void created in those days by the absence of this wooden stool whenever taken out by my neighbours was glaring. Though bought for the use of visitors, mostly relatives, it had multifarious utility. My mother immediately used it to fix the coffee grinding machine. The demand for the stool during the festive season, particularly Magara Sankaranthi, soared. To remove cobwebs, clean electrical fittings and whitewash the walls, it went around the locality.

The stool now waits to be summoned to fire. Even an inanimate object is not an exception to the axiom that when a thing ceases to be useful, it better cease to exist once and for all than be a burden on those who indefatigably used it till it collapsed.

My senile thoughts drive me to this conclusion 8212; that is, this is applicable to everything and everyone. Man, whether useful to society or not in his lifetime, can be useful to society if his body is donated for medical use. Someone visually challenged can see through donated eyes, his kidneys can save someone8217;s life, and even his skin and bones can be used.