Skip to main content

Rotten Onions


Husband came home jubilantly because he had managed to get a kilogram of onions at half the market price, thanks to Sheila didi.

“Rotten,” said Wife in her characteristic laconic way after opening the precious packet of onions.

“Really?”  Husband was agitated.  Agitation was his characteristic way.  “How could the government sell onions at half the market price?  It has to be rotten.  No dealer will sell onions at that rate even to the government in these days when governments are dictated to by traders.  The question is why the media didn’t pick it up.”

“See this,” said Wife.  She showed him the front page report on his favourite newspaper, The Hindu, which said, “Delhiites say Govt selling ‘rotten’ onions”. 

No wonder there was no rush for onions today, mused Husband who would not have bought the onions otherwise.  But he had to justify himself before Wife. 

So he said, “I wonder why the media doesn’t pursue the matter beyond the obvious.  For example, where did the government get the onions from?  Was it from people who were hoarding it with the malicious purpose of raising its price and then sold it to the government when it started rotting?  The big farmers or the wholesale traders made a deal with the government and the government cheated the people.  Simple, you see, darling.  Cheating is what life is about today.  If you don’t cheat, you are a fool.  The media just wants to prove that we are fools...”

Wife understood.  Her husband was trying his best not to appear a fool before her.   She smiled.

 

PS. Not from personal experience.  Inspired by the front page report in The Hindu.
Labels:

Comments

  1. MridulaOctober 30, 2013 at 7:24 PM

    I saw that report and a nice take on the sad state of affairs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 30, 2013 at 7:38 PM

      I'm yet to find out where in Delhi they sell the govt supplied onions :)

      Delete
  2. KhushbooOctober 30, 2013 at 7:33 PM

    For the first time in months, talking about onions made me smile :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Poonam KhandujaOctober 30, 2013 at 9:27 PM

    Nice Satirical Take. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 30, 2013 at 10:48 PM

    Indeed Govt. are cheating the Common People,What Govt. is doing is simply not acceptable on their part,They make money by fooling Indians..That's what they had been doing all these years and will continue to do in future..

    But I guess I am lucky to have Onions at Rs 60/kg and not the rotten one.. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 9:43 AM

      Onion is a powerful political weapon. It has revealed its claws and fangs earlier too just before elections.

      Good you're lucky.

      Delete
  5. On A Good LengthOctober 31, 2013 at 12:19 PM

    Amazing read on Onions :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownOctober 31, 2013 at 12:49 PM

    One of my friends was joking about renaming "Paneer Do Payaza" to "Pyaz Do Paneer" as onion is more valuable than paneer now :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:31 PM

      "If people don't have onion, let them eat paneer," said the queen!

      Delete
  7. RAN IN JAN October 31, 2013 at 1:13 PM

    i didnt read the article though, but it was good to read about the issue. I have started to eat without onions.I feel how the Jain's were so wise about not choosing onions.lol. Great read sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:34 PM

      The Jains know their onions, Ran.

      I have seen people asking for 100 grams of onions from shopkeepers and vendors!

      Delete
  8. ekta khetanOctober 31, 2013 at 3:01 PM

    Very well written. To tell you the truth, I know vendors who supply onions to mart and market. They are paid a very paltry sum of amount wherein these hypercity etc sells it to us at sky rocketing price.

    Dirty politics!
    www.numerounity.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:36 PM

      When politics and commerce become bed mates, you can't expect anything better, dear friend.

      Delete
  9. SidOctober 31, 2013 at 3:23 PM

    We often forgive the media for its doings, despite it being the fourth pillar of democracy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:37 PM

      The fourth pillar is meant for supporting the other 3: the aristocrats, the politicians, and the traders!

      Delete
  10. UnknownOctober 31, 2013 at 4:01 PM

    Good thing you mentioned that it's not a personal experience :P :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:38 PM

      Ha ha ha, thanks Pankti.
      The fact is that I have often got into similar traps :)

      Delete
  11. AditiOctober 31, 2013 at 4:05 PM

    Very well written....loved you brought about some entertainment in these rotten times!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 5:40 PM

      We can look forward to more rotten times, Aditi. Today's papers report that the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas are going to be raised. Subsidies will slowly be removed from everything. Private firms will cry hoarse over financial crunch and cut salaries...

      I hope to entertain you in those times too :)

      Delete
  12. UnknownOctober 31, 2013 at 6:55 PM

    Ha ha ha, this is a nice one on the onions.The first time onions brought a smile instead of tears!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mon.EspritOctober 31, 2013 at 7:13 PM

    Perfect ending, exactly how it really is :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 31, 2013 at 9:16 PM

      See how onions can make us creative. thanks for the appreciation.

      Delete
  14. AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 1:54 AM

    [ Smiles ] Lovely article. However, cheating is highly dishonest!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 5, 2013 at 9:53 AM

      Hasn't cheating become an integral part of politics and trade today? The worst thing that happened in the last 2 or 3 decades is the nexus between traders and politicians.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand
6 comments
Read more

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv
10 comments
Read more

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation
4 comments
Read more

Cats and Love

No less a psychologist than Freud said that the “time spent with cats is never wasted.” I find time to spend with cats precisely for that reason. They are not easy to love, particularly if they are the country variety which are not quite tameable, and mine are those. What makes my love affair with my cats special is precisely their unwillingness to befriend me. They’d rather be in their own company. “In ancient time, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” Terry Pratchett says. My cats haven’t, I’m sure. Pratchett knew what he was speaking about because he loved cats which appear frequently in his works. Pratchett’s cats love independence, very unlike dogs. Dogs come when you call them; cats take a message and get back to you as and when they please. I don’t have dogs. But my brother’s dogs visit us – Maggie and me – every evening. We give them something to eat and they love that. They spend time with us after eating. My cats just go away without even a look af
8 comments
Read more