Glaring-Shadow

He had the soul of our times and is the namesake of many. He tamed success by the scruff of its neck, only to fuel envy in his neighborhood. When it seemed there was no stopping him, fate dealt him a deadly blow in his early sixties. Besides losing his wife, son, and daughter-in-law with their children in that fatal road mishap, he also found his leg mangled in the debris of that Ferrari. The intensity of the pity all felt for him seemed to match the magnitude of his loss, but as he became a recluse, his thoughts eluded all, and in due course, his tragedy became a thing of the past. But, in time, his intriguing behavior brought him back to the top of page three in the local media—why he had disposed off his lucrative real estate for a song that left the realtors in the lurch. And as if to create a newsflash in the business world, he had off-loaded his considerable stockholding, which sent the bulls running for cover in the country's bourses. Soon, even as the scrip was still crunching in the bear hug, the closure of his umpteen bank accounts earned him national headlines as it heralded a first-rate liquidity crisis in the country's banking system.

And what he did with all that liquidated cash was consign it to flames! What are the falsities of life that came to the fore as he went about his unusual act?