Agni

Book excerpt: Moosa the village butcher slaughtered his boy assistant today for no reason and walked away God knows where. All are afraid that when he returns, his chopper may fall on anybody's neck. He has no place else to go, so it is believed he is bound to come back. The village is in the grip of mortal fear.The consensus is Moosa is unlikely to have turned mad. In fact, he is reported to have appeared saner after perpetrating the atrocity, eat his lunch in tranquility, chew beetle-nut and nonchalantly walk away. The village has to prepare itself to contain him when he comes back. What really went wrong has therefore to be discerned...The novelette portrays a certain community of special nativity in a style unique to the Author. Critical opinion considers it an all-time work and it explores various dimensions of the love-violence equation.