
(Photo: Stéphane Hermellin via Unsplash)
Mala peeled off, at a snail’s pace.
Suffering, she couldn’t hasten it either.
Tears overflowing her red eyes.
All the while she was paring the onion, thoughts about the layers maintained by her only son plagued her.
Decades ago her mother, while working in their onion fields, had remarked, “Life is like onions!” But the twelve-year-old Mala had no clue.
Her parents toiled like slaves to make the two ends meet. But, when they were all set to sell their bumper yields, onion prices had stooped down too low. Obtained nothing, not even peanuts.
Poverty-stricken farmers protested. Mala’s father had gone a little further, burnt his onion field and committed suicide.
She hated onions.
Still, working as a cook in Mumbai City, she had no choice.
All she could do is cry, daily, hoping that someday her pains get cocooned in its many layers, just like the onions.
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150 words
{What Pegmain Saw-Location prompt-Mumbai}
India is the second largest producer of onions in the world. Maharashtra state leads in onion production. Mumbai in Maharashtra has some of the largest onion markets.