Onion and garlic, anyone?

My mother hails from a rather conservative Tamil Brahmin family. They were Iyers from Palakkad settled in Chennai. From all accounts, my great-grandmother must have been a terror to live with. Lots of rules, usually for women, and enough rituals to make people want to adopt Buddhism instead!!! Cooking was strictly regulated in the house, of course, and women bathed in the morning before even entering the kitchen. Onion and garlic were taboo until about 20 years ago. My summer hols were spent dreading extended stays in my mother’s maternal home because I LOVE onion…adore it in all its forms and a month without it in my diet seemed like torture. Anyways, to children keen to explore a world outside their home, this little tale was told to keep them on the straight and narrow onion- and garlic-less world!!
The story goes:
Many of us know the story of the churning of the ocean. The devas and asuras come together to churn the ocean and obtain the nectar of immortality. Lord Vishnu takes up his second avatar as a turtle, koorma avatar, and helps them by keeping the mountain used for the churning, upright and afloat.
Out of the churning waters first comes out a poisonous vapour that is caught and drunk by Shiva (the story of Neelakantha). After that follow various other things and finally, in a pot, appears the nectar from the depths of the ocean. Vishnu then appears in the form of a maiden, Mohini. A perennial cheat, Vishnu pretends he will dole out the nectar of immortality to the rakshasas as well as the devas but ends up giving it only to the devas. At this there is obvious outrage and a huge battle follows (considering the devas had the advantage of never dying, the battle was rather one-sided!). During the battle, two asuras, Rahu and Ketu, steal the pot of nectar and try to escape with it. Vishnu spies them and just as they try to drink the nectar, Vishnu’s Sudarshana chakra takes off their heads before the nectar goes down their throats!! The saliva of the asuras lands on the ground and becomes onion and garlic. And so their pungent smell is because they’re from the saliva of asuras (of course, no one thought to mention they’re healthy because they have the nectar of immortality in them, but that’s another story!!).
Thus, the world got the wonderful bulbs onion and garlic. And if you ever thought of them as the saliva of rakshasas (or anyone at all) I am sure you’d think twice about eating them, too!!!