In crisis, there is opportunity, even in a tearjerker like the onion crisis

The writing on the shopping basket is clear: grow your own onions. Indians know their onions, after all, when it comes to finding alternatives when faced with endemic shortages, so this alternative should occur to many. The battery inverter, for instance, was an ingenious, silent and compact solution for sudden and frequent power cuts, though not prolonged ones. Countless other necessity-related and adversity-prompted innovations have also been immortalised as jugaadin India. This can-do spirit is what will probably lead to a discovery of an alternative to fossil fuel too, as petrol prices begin to soar past the stratosphere. By comparison, growing onions to offset the debilitating periodic spikes in the tubers’ prices in the market would be child’s play if Indians put their minds to it.

The bulbs require minimal investment and very little equipment, none of it mechanical. And, contrary to popular belief, they can be grown all year round, even from alreadysprouted onions. Like India’s famed white and green revolutions, a pink one could provide the world with another selfhelp paradigm to admire. Indeed, if all vegetable prices continue to rise, parallel rooftop or kitchen-garden barter regimes — your tomatoes for my onions — could eventually evolve, adding a new dimension to the trend of eating local.