I am cylindrical in shape and pitch black in my outlook but then let me also divulge or announce it proudly rather that I’m not an LPG cylinder the acute shortage of which has caused real problems to commoners for quite some time. I do fervently hope nevertheless that my modern/advanced siblings will fill up their long overdue vacancy. I see them lying jobless having run out of their element with myself being brought in at some domiciles as a replacement or perhaps an ad hoc arrangement.

You cannot call me ancient or traditional for the same reason why you won’t put those tags on Iphone 2 just because Iphone 6 is out! In any case my build and my function in particular has good amount of thermodynamics in it; I’m not at all a science of stupid product then. By the same token, you cannot call me modern either because I’m relatively inexpensive, manual and time consuming by ‘modern’ standards. It may be the case of utility outweighing comfort under the present circumstances; otherwise I wouldn’t have stood a chance. For all my pros and cons, I am proving to be really handy nonetheless to those who have found a little place for me in their kitchen.

I have no qualms admitting that I emit smoke while I discharge my duties while my younger siblings don’t. In my defense, I use up resources that are renewable. They don’t. My distant cousin Mr. Induction is a separate case. In the backdrop of modern machinery and vehicles letting out humongous amount of fume I might be listless and thus not that environment- unfriendly. So much for my existential and utilitarian justifications! ‘What’s in a name? A fire by any other name would feel as hot.’ Just for the record, I’ve been given a name ‘sawdust stove.’ A little about myself then.

I have a chimney hole cut towards the bottom and another one at the centre of the lid. A pipe or a cylindrical log of 2 inch diameter can be used to create a chimney as and when the saw dust is filled inside. The sawdust is tamped around the pipe/log packing it tightly and when it reaches the brim, the pipe shall be removed. The chimney hole at the bottom receives some cut-out log and when ignited gets humble support from the saw dust gradually. With the lid put on, I’d be ready and could be as effective as any other facility you’ve been using. Let there be good meals, let there be requisite amount of fire and let there be light in all of us as we tackle this situation.