Wastage of food is an issue that is often underrated in the life of a busy metropolitan Indian. It isn’t fair on our part to waste the food that we’re lucky to have got, when millions out there, starve for a day’s meal. It’s high time that we, ‘privileged few’, decide to purchase only what we ‘can’ eat and consume ‘fully’. It is high time that we decide to adopt the “clean-plate” doctrine.
I was travelling with a couple of my friends to my hometown when we decided to stop by a restaurant. One of my friends claimed that he was “hungry-to-death”. On getting our orders placed, the hungry friend placed the biggest order and was in for a real big-fat gulp! Or at least I thought so!
An hour passed by, my other friends and me were done with our dishes while the hungry-friend of ours had also finished eating along with us, leaving most of what he had ordered, untouched. He said, “My tummy can’t buy more of this” and just walked away for a hand wash. The least I could do is to apologise to the Almighty on his behalf.
When we were on our way out of the restaurant, I noticed a little boy carrying away our plates towards the trash can. Quite unexpectedly, he stopped and sat down in a corner and started consuming all the food that my friend wasted. It was an unsettling sight. I immediately rushed to him and told him not to eat from that plate. The boy replied, “It doesn’t matter Didi! I’ve been starving from the morning and I really need some food. That’s all!” This embarrassed us and we decided to buy the little boy some food.
From that incident onwards, time and again circumstances remind me of one thing—Respect food. Save food. And, ‘never bite more than what you can chew.
Vidya Gopalakrishnan
