“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Only if we as an individual knew the essence of every single grain we are being blessed with and how there are millions of people out there who don’t even get to enjoy as least as one time meal, then only we could have been ultra-cautious before wasting any amount of food.
There are many occasions when we might, out of sheer ignorance, end up wasting already meagre sustenance resources both food and water. Some brag while attending extravagant gatherings and just give this boastful air to impress the one accompanying. But believe me that it is the worst and most archaic tactic to awe anyone.
Even in a buffet dinner, it is okay if the restaurant is offering unlimited food; that doesn’t mean you have to fill your whole plate even when you don’t need. You can always take it for the second time if you have finished all of the food and are still hungry. But unnecessarily heaping whole of your platter with food although not having any appetite for it; which when not gobbled by you goes to the trash bin; which instead would have gone in some needy’s belly if you would have been careful at the first place.
So is the case when, we bring in or simply order food parcels. We can always clarify beforehand about not sending along all those, more than extra sachets of pizza spices, tomato ketchups, chutney, et al. Because as such they are going to get wasted even if we, for once, bother to store them in refrigerator, as the next time when we order-in again, the next bunch of sachets will take its place in the refrigerator to the point when the whole of door shelves and dairy compartment would be spilling over each time we open the door. Only if we could spare some energy in mentioning, while ordering, not to complement those add-ons, then the same could have been used for the right reasons and you could have done your bit to feed someone hungry out there though not directly.
Not to forget the cookery shows and competitions being aired on every other channel of the television these days. I always keep wondering as to where must all that cooked food must be utilised after the screening is over. Nevertheless, while the actual shooting is on, quite many times the same recipes are made over and over again, for the retakes purpose.
Even during religious fasting period, people these days instead of concentrating on additional prayers to be offered, end up preparing even more food than usual and then the remaining goes waste. I am no soothsayer, but then the time is not distant, when water will be sold at the cost of gold and people will be quarrelling for food as they now dispute over different faiths.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
