ONION'S CASE FOR PLAUDITS

One would remember the fabled battle between different animals as to who was the greatest as well as that of different parts of the human body which in a humorous way teaches the kids of the importance and utility of each part of the body. A similar battle appears to be in the horizon between three unlikely contenders - Sachin, Crude and Onion.

Sachin- the undoubted master of tons is reaching a new milestone of a double ton in Tests before he raises the bat and looks into the blue sky to thank the Lord and his father at least in Test matches. He would have undoubtedly hoped that the attention would remain on him after being the cynosure for nearly a quarter century. Imagine the maestro's expression as the crude prices marched towards a ton taking a sizeable portion of the headlines. Even as the crude prices were being tamed, the humble onion thought it befitting to salute the maestro by mastering a ton by itself. Being a Marathi, the khanda is precious to the palate of the maestro and its intentions would have been treated with a fist thumping except for the fact that it was rivalling and even eclispsing the maestro's farewell Test.

Undoing even the crude's feat, the onion managed to make the anchors in Arnab, Rajdeep and the others virtually team up to give the primetime to it. Unlike the crude (petrol and diesel apart from the LPG), there was none to share the space.It appeared as though the other end had collapsed and the onion carried the bat and the match into the rival camp. Individual sportsmen like Leander and Anand were also put to shade. There was no exhibition of jubilation or thanksgiving by the onion on reaching the milestone. Instead, it looked like a batsman whose century was of no importance as the follow on was yet to be avoided. The politicos of every shade desired to make their presence felt but the onion would not share space with its single minded devotion of achieving its task. It has politely declined to attend any press conference or be taken in by the inviting barbs or belligerent anchors in the electronic media. Unfortunately, the crowd also was not appreciative of its feat and was booing it to achieve lower scores. Lesser batsmen like Kumble and Kirmani were feted on such accomplishments.

The khanda which is priceless to the palate of the Maharashtrians and most Indians deserves a far better treatment than the one that is being meted out to it. Even the sacrificial bakra of Bakrid is given a far better treatment. May yours truly implore on the denizens of India to recognise the feats of the onion and cheer it to achieve the landmark of double ton on the 200th Test of Sachin! Let us also commend the dark horse of the race on its feat!