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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

The Fifth Floor: India's Onion Crisis

India's onion crisis

06/09/2013

India's Onion Crisis

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, India's Onion Crisis

Can Indians and their curry pots face the prospect of life without the mighty onion?

Fearless in Delhi; Great Lakes: love thy neighbour; Heavy metal in Ecuador; India's onion obsession; Cinema in Cuba; and Indonesia's anti-communist purges

Fearless in Delhi
BBC Hindi's Divya Arya is a born and bred Delhi-wallah - a new play about sexual violence in her city is making her re-think her attitudes about her hometown.

Great Lakes: Love Thy Neighbour
There's a diplomatic row brewing between Tanzania and Rwanda - BBC Africa's Kasim Kayira gives a lowdown on the power-tussle between the neighbours, and an insight into why Tanzania is such a key player in the volatile Great Lakes region.

Ecuador's Punk Rockers
Irene Caselli gives a crash course on the flourishing punk rock scene in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city.

India's Onions: the Sob Story 
India is in the midst of an onion crisis - inflation and crop damage has meant that this essential food staple is in shortage. Can Indians and their curry pots handle life without the mighty onion? In Delhi, BBC Urdu's Suhail Haleem peels back the layers and finds that his country has been there before.

Cinema in Cuba
The experience of going to the movies can be different depending on what country you're in. For instance, watching the latest Bollywood flick in a Mumbai picture house one may expect a lot of audience interaction, whereas in London just opening a packet of crisps provokes angry shushing. But what about in Havana? From Cuba, Fernando Ravsberg recalls his fondest big screen experiences.

Indonesia's Dark History
A chilling and inventive new documentary, called The Act of Killing recreates the atrocities of 1960s Indonesian death squads - in which around 500,000 people were killed in so-called anti-communist purges. Liston Siregar, editor of the Indonesian Service looks back at this dark episode in his country's history.

Image: Pictures of India's prime minister and president adorned with onion garlands at an onion shortage protest. Credit: Reuters

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