An Open Letter to the Onion

Hi, Onion,

                 What a naughty vegetable you are! Your prices are soaring like the Bollywood actors raise theirs. The gossips are also making rounds of social media like those of the artists. Various incidents are being shared about you – some real, some fictional. Some people feel sad that there is no place to share their woes. So, we have come up with An Open Letter to the Onion.

Dear Onion, due to you a just married couple got separated. The reason was that the wife used more garlic and onion on the menu. Another wife left her husband and took their child with her; saying unless he gave her enough onion and garlic, she would not return. MIL and DIL also have quarreled due to you. The son was unable to tolerate the bickering at home and became an alcoholic.

You did not spare even small boys. A naughty boy heard his parents talking about the rise in your prices and highlighting that your importance was more than money. This boy decided to test what he had learnt. A relative had given him Rs.200 as a gift. He placed that money and some onions in the middle of a road. Then, he hid behind a tree and watched people walking around. He had planned to catch the person, who would pick up either of the stuff on the road and wanted to ask them why the person had picked it up.

But, man proposes, God disposes. One woman ran toward the onions to pick them up and a beggar toward the money. Usually, no large vehicles came on that road. That day, when the naughty boy ran toward the road, a 3-wheeler tempo hit him and he fell unconscious. The tempo driver got down from the vehicle. The driver was the boy’s own uncle. The man took his nephew to the hospital and called the boy’s parents. The boy had sustained fractures in his arm and leg. He lost the money, onions as well as got injured. On top of that, his prank resulted in hospital expenses for his parents. His parents were in tears looking at their son. The boy and his uncle were also in tears.

Dear Onion, what do you achieve by bringing tears to people’s eyes. You have begun to participate in magic shows as well. Okay. Now, I will give you a piece of my mind. Don’t fly so high. One day, you will fall down at breakneck speed. At that time, no one will care about you. Something else will take your place. Come back to terra firma and begin to make people laugh through their tears again.