Discover the Writer in You

  While sorting through some old files, I came across The Taste of Onions , a short story that was published in Woman's Era nearly a decade ago. Somehow, I never got around to sharing it with readers of this blog. I'm happy to do so now. It is an interesting tale about the quiet sacrifices that often go unnoticed in everyday life. Looking back after all these years, I find that the story is less about onions and more about love, dignity, and the human capacity to rise above the ordinary. I am happy to share it here with readers who may have missed it when it first appeared in print. 📖 Read the Story:   The Taste of Onions Originally published in Woman's Era (March Second, 2016).

  Tara and I worked in the same office. Different departments. Same floor. We mostly met near the coffee machine or during lunch breaks when both of us wanted to avoid people. She worked in Marketing. I worked in Operations. This meant she attended meetings with expressions. I attended meetings with spreadsheets. For nearly two years, our friendship survived entirely on coffee, sarcasm, and office gossip. Then one Tuesday morning, I showed her an email. “Read this,” I said. She took my phone casually. Then stopped stirring her coffee. The mail was short. From: unknown.sender19@protonmail.com To: varun.p@brightline.com If you talk to other women here, I will kill you. Tara looked at me. Then at the screen again. “Well,” she said softly, “that feels slightly unhealthy.” “I received it ten minutes ago.” “On your office mail?” “Yes.” She sat down slowly. The cafeteria around us remained perfectly ordinary. Coffee machines hissed. Somebody laughed too loudly near the billing counter. Tw...

  It was a beautiful necklace. More beautiful, since it was a gift from her husband.  But, Nalini had not put it on even once.  She desired certain changes.  Though everyone who saw the necklace, found it to be exquisite, she was not satisfied.  The necklace consisted of shiny black pearls, the central piece was oval in shape and bigger than the rest. The smaller pearls were octagonal and linked to each other with golden rods. Initially, she got the golden links changed with silver ones. But even that did not look good enough.  Next, she got the central black pearl replaced with a white one but that also did not fit aptly. Finally, she got it back to its original design.  But she pondered continuously on how to get it into an ideal shape. The necklace was presented to her ten years back.  Nalini Mahadevan was a housewife.  And Rupesh was a successful businessman. He had seen her at a family marriage function and it was love at first sight. Bu...