Missing is an alternate for lame tear jerker posts...

She stirred in a little lime pickle.She has never been a lime pickle fan.She found it a little bitter.Her mother used to give her this snack every evening back home.She used to mix mustard oil,pulse crackers,chopped onions,tomatoes and green chillies with the puffed rice and finally added a spoonful of lime pickle to 'enhance the flavor'.She had no way but to eat it.Then she used to go and have two,sometimes three breath mints to shoo the bad breath away so that he wouldn't get it the next day,when they kiss.She used to hate her mom like anything back then.Why did she always have to put onions in everything?Puffed rice,egg curry,masoor dal,chicken curry,fish curry,noodles...Every bloody thing would stink of onions!Good that she could convince her not to add garlic.She said it made her cheeks feel all hot and flushed.But why the hell did onion have to be so good for health?She was always looking for an excuse to ask her not to put onions but never found any.Now,when she's far from home,she misses the bad breath.She chops onions for herself to put into everything.She doesn't have to worry about the bad breath anymore.She's done with men.She has got rid of them for once and for all.Whatever she does these days,she does it for herself.Odd thing about onions?The tears take her back to old days.She thinks what her mother might be doing now.Making tea?Reading newspapers?Maybe missing her a little?Nope,no chance.She has given her mother nothing to miss her for.Maybe she's actually relieved that she's gone.Maybe it has put an end to all her troubles-worrying for her when she gets drunk with friends and returns home late or when she goes through a terrible break up and shouts on phone everyday?The glances she'd draw from the neighbors wearing that low neck top?Maybe it has put an end to the constant orders she was used to.'Get me my Mechanics book,will you?','Good heavens!This one's Fluid Mechanics,I told you to get Thermodynamics!Can't you read?What do you have those freaking glasses for?'...

Her mother used to oil her hair and tie it into a braid every night.It was one of a kind.She has never seen anything like this again.She used cheap silk ribbons and cotton ones to kind of fold the hair in between.She said that it prevented split ends.Every friend of hers had laughed at her at some point of time,thanks to this unique hairstyle.She had never protested back,just got angrier with her mother.How she wishes now that she learned it then!Her mother was right.It does offer protection against split ends.She has to go to her hairstylist a lot these days.Or maybe that has nothing to do with the braid,it's just her lifestyle-stress,lack of sleep,eating disorders...Funny thing about nostalgia-makes you believe things you'd have never believed otherwise.