Introduction:

The chair is a humorous story written Ki Rajanarayanan. The narrator’s family had only a three legged stock in their house. The children used to stand on the stool to steal ghee. They often fell down from it.

Visit of a sub judge: One day family friend a sub judge visited the narrator’s house. As there was no chair in the house, a three-legged stool was brought for him to sit. While the sub-judge tried to sit on it, he lost his balance and fell down on the floor.

Discussions among family members:

After this incident, they decided to make a chair for their home. There was no chair in the village to show as a model. There was no carpenter in that village to make a chair. Athai said  that there was a skilled carpenter in the neighbouring village. He was invited and made two chairs made of teak. Now the two chairs were arrived and they were sturdy (strong). One for the narrator’s family and the other one for the Maamanaar. The two chairs were like Rama Lakshmana.

Custom of the villagers.:

The villagers had the custom to keep the dead body in a sitting position. Whenever there was a death in the village, people used to take the chair for keeping the corpse (dead body) in the seated position.

A few days passed by:

One night, someone knocked the door. Pedanan (the author’s brother) opened the door. They said that important person had just died in the village and that they needed the chair. They had moved from floor tickets to chair tickets!

Pedannea replied patiently,

“Chair only, no? It is in our Maamanaar’s house, Go and ask him, he will give it.”

Maamannar was the stingiest person (a great miser) in the village

Conclusion:

Maamanaar wiped the every morning and handled with care. After many days, the narrator visited his Maamanaar’s house. He saw that his Maamanaar was sitting on the floor. Chewing betel leaves. The narrator asked him about the chair. His Maamanaar told that he donated the chairs forever to the villagers for the purpose of keeping dead body. His Maamanaar’s humanity was revealed at the end.