Onion brings smiles instead of tears to many faces

Onion is an indispensable vegetable in kitchens all over the world and it is customary to link it with tears because, concealed beneath the layers of goodness of the tuber lies an invisible force that will variably force tears out of your eyes.
But, a situation has now come in India where the very sight on this vegetable brings smiles on the faces of one and all because it is gradually vanishing from sight and only a selected few can actually bring home the elusive onion. Yes – once again the price of onions has gone sky high and the women of the house are hard pressed to locate an alternative. Of course, there is no alternative as such and people have to modify their food habits to get accustomed to meals sans onion. It has really happened to me on an earlier occasion, a hotel gave me slices of muli instead of onions as salad.

We ourselves are to blame for the sudden disappearance of onions from the markets and their skyrocketing prices. I have been in Nashik for nearly half a century and this is the place where onions are grown for the whole of India. Nashik is on everybody’s lips whenever onions come up for discussion. I remember in 1960-70, a small basket of onions containing around two kilograms would be costing hardly 10 or 15 paise!! Today, in Nashik, onion is sold for Rs 20 to Rs 25 per kilogram.
This has not happened all of a sudden.
The first culprit is loss of agricultural land which have been converted to residential category and sold off to builders who have constructed housing estates. People have to first find a place to live, then only can they worry about onions. Obviously, onions have taken a severe beating.
The second culprit is the vagaries of nature that bring unseasonal rains. When this happens at the time of drying of the onions after they are dug out of the ground and left out in the open this means huge loss for the farmers. They are caught unawares and curse their fate. And – we ourselves are responsible for these unseasonal rains. The reason is loss of ecological balance due to deforestation and urbanization. (to be continued ..)

(Image courtesy wikimedacommons.org)
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