What Could Have Gone Wrong Went Wrong
By Ari Nag
Have you nearly set your own home on fire? Well, I have too—and it turns out insurance doesn’t pay for stuff like this. Instead of setting my whole home on fire, it was just my mom’s night stand. But she still wasn't happy, to say the least.
Before all of this unfolded, with good intentions, I decided to carry out a very important science experiment that would benefit the entire nation exponentially. If I’m being honest, I have absolutely no clue what this experiment was supposed to be, but it must have been extremely important considering how “smart” I thought I was when it came to setting things on fire. Little did I know my life would flash before my eyes sooner than I expected.
Previously, for obvious safety reasons, I had brought a cup of crisp, refreshing water—not just for me, but for… let’s just say, some unfortunate circumstance in which I might be forced to use it to defend my home. So, I set up the experiment involving a candle and needle-like precision with a lighter in order to achieve the most satisfactory glowing ember, which I would then meticulously transport to the kitchen.
With absolute stellar accuracy, I sparked the finest, most subtle flame, from which I could supposedly “see all things in heaven from within.” Who am I kidding? I have absolutely no clue what that even means, but so far so good. All that was left was to transport the candle to the kitchen. And while everything up to that point had gone well, I wish I could say the same for what was to come.
“Help! Fire, there’s a huge fire in the house!” Okay, well, I didn’t exactly say that. It was more of a subtle scream in my mind. Whatever I actually said at that moment, it didn’t matter—I had absolutely no movement. In those five seconds of total paralysis, I had the survival instincts of a literal fridge. I mean, you could have thrown a brick at me and I wouldn’t have noticed.
After some careful (and panicked) consideration, I decided not to call the fire department and instead extinguished the flames with my cup of water. “phew!”
After that, I learned a valuable lesson about not playing with fire—although one could argue whether I actually learned it. In the end, though, I was safe but that came at a price because 3 months down the road I got a real slap on the wrist. "At least you didn’t burn the wood” A while later I think you could guess what happened… “ARIHANT !!!”