Onion Saga-02

Now that cricket fever is over and I do not watch the I.P.L (gallery cricket or name it people cricket with cheap betting activated-for CEOs who do not have any worthwhile hobby to engage in, when he comes home and watch it on a potato couch) cricket anyway, and it is time to come down to earth with New Year celebration round the corner.

I neglected my pet fish and the tiny garden and even forgot to water them.

When onion was fetching Rs.300/= and above and when we were buying some rotten onions a few of them were thrown away in the dustbin in the kitchen, I retrieved them from the bin and planted in few pots to see the onion saga really emerging.

Except two all of them sprouted well and I watered them liberally.

They were healthy with my dog adding useful urea (his urine as a fertilizer) spurts in his rounds with me.

Mind you dogs love the smell of fresh plants growing and my dog has the habit of smelling the leaves of the young plants and enjoying the smell and fragrance of flowers (I have Jasmine too) and as a stamp of approval of my work he does the yeoman service of spurting some urea (he is a bit of a young natural scientist unlike our kids who learn only from government published books not updated for ages-and certainly have no idea of, from where the beans and onions come from) and he never does the big job on the plants (he lets me know when he wants to do the big job and never on the plant beds-that is why call him a young scientist).

So sorry for the diversion and my dogs rounds has to be appreciated in best of terms since I had no intention of using onions in the kitchen but as a plant to watch and make my simple observation of using them as bio-indicators of atmospheric temperature.

In no time they started blooming with long stems and I gradually reduced the amount of water and abruptly stopped watering them to see what happens next.

This is the same ploy I applied to pineapples plant after flowering but stated watering it to see from where the next stem comes. It has grown a stem with a wild plant accompanying it’s root and growing strongly in spite of bearing a fruit once.

Incidentally another pineapple plant started flowering after two years.

The real surprise came today.

As I said I neglected my routine and due to intermittent inter-monsoon rain (not heavy) I did not bother to water other plants.

The surprise is on top of the flower stem there were tiny onion bulbs growing and the slender stem bearing their weight. The intermittent rain had caused the seeds to germinate.

I immediately took it out with the young bulbs and planted in another pot.
Another flower stem was separated and put it on a pot with soil soaked with water.
The other to were left alone to see what happen next.
This is how I learned my biology and science as a kid.

I did not have a science teacher till I was about 15 years old and when I got a science teacher, I was well advanced in my own discoveries, he could not spoil my natural instinct and discoveries.

Now I wonder how I came this far with minimal help from the teachers except the mathematics teacher and physics teacher.

Biology teacher was horrible to say the least.

Now coming to my inference.

In Kandy we could not grow the following 40 years ago.

1. Pineapples
2. Pumpkins (no flowering)
3. Papaw
4. Lemons and Oranges (no fruits and flowering fails)
5. Some type of orchids ( I do not have a single orchid now which was a hobby of my father when we were in Kurunagala and with his demise, the hobby died a natural death and in Kandy we could have only a few of the orchids growing that were plenty when we were in Kurunagla).

All of them are growing (except orchids which I have not tried) and flowering now and the global warming has hit us real.

It is time for me to transfer my interests to orchids now with retiring age approaching fast.

Onion Saga -01

Onion saga is much better topic than the Coconut saga.

Coconut saga was deliberate attempt by Americans (Jimmy Cater included) to undermine coconut oil (which they have succeeded until perhaps I came into the writing scene quite by accident- to promote peanut oil and peanut butter).

The lesson in history is not to believe Americans if he or she happens to be an American diplomat male or female.
I am made to believe that the woman scientist who published the coconut theory (bad for heart) had an untimely death (was made to commit suicide by her very own masters) is not a tragedy in human sense but a discovery in science.

Now even the coconut go up to Rs.100= I am not inclined to write anything on coconut but Onion Saga is welcome reminder for me to get into full gear and explode if possible.

This time it was not American intervention.

This time it is coming from and booming Indians who have spawned a Scientific Inquiry and few pertinent questions.

According to economic pundits Indian economy is booming but despite the rocket carrying satellite burst in air, Indian farmers for the first time in Green Revolution initiated by Mrs.Gandhi have failed to take into account of the average Onion Bargjji Eaters.

But I was happy they did not.

When Indian market sneezes we have a political hiccoughs.

I was given strict instruction by my wife not to come home without Bombay Onions even if I have to go to Bombay for that (Sorry my Mumbaians -we still call onions Bombay Onions and Bombay Mutai is our sweet- we do not read or see global name changes).

I did find a place to by Onions and just before the fellow started weighing I took a big onion in my hand and asked him to weigh and tell me the price.

Believe it or not it was 50 (fifty fifty), the price of a coconut.

I asked the fellow to parcel that onion separately and got a kilo of onion and came home happily.
My wife opened the parcel and asked me why one is separately wrapped.

My answer was that is fifty rupees and rest are multiples of fifty.

And I told her that it has poison weight for weight and do clean and wash them before cooking and eating.

But I thought the saga would end there but it did not,

My wife left home for some work outside and today the servant lady was doing the honours at the kitchen and she dropped the entire remaining (let’s say 750 grams of it to be precise) lot into the dustbin right under my nose.

They were sprouting!

Hold it I told her; Give me my Onions!
Why Sir.
I am going to plant them today in a pot.
She did not have any answer back.

Then I looked for any pots to plant them but I could not find any.

So jumped into my Denim and raised to Kandy and had a haircut in the shape of coconut with an onion ring shape of hair in the middle.

That is my hair style for the Cricket World Cup and Tharunnayata Hetek Boys Brigade if would you like to copy it?

But the style is my copyright, you boys brigade.

Happy New Year with plenty of Onions and Coconuts!

Incidentally, I had a haircut today and the barber told me there were few blisters and a moonate (green pea) sized ulceration on my top. Then I remember I was walking down the Trincomale Street in front of the Maligawa and something watery stuff fell on my head (it was not a bird’s- not crow’s -dropping) from the Queens hotel building. I thought must be from the air conditioner cooling but three hours later, I washed my head thoroughly in case it was something nasty.

I still wonder what it is and we cannot now walk in front of the Maligawa (without an unnatural accident of some sort) and this building is managed by Indians and I do not know what the hell they are storing upstairs.
Is it a curse or an accident I do not know.
In any case I come to Kandy to browse some books in the bookshops and not for shopping now but certainly or a haircut at my regular place which is surviving still.