Amma the food sucks………

I was having “Tikki Puri” the other day at Chamrajpete. People were gathered around to have a bite of their favourite chat from the itinerant chat seller.  As I was about to put the second tikka into my mouth, a sorrowful sight caught my eyes. A ragged old man just arrived, put his horny hands into the waste bin, and started eating the half eaten puris and other stuff thrown by the people. The eye balls become heavy with water. No sooner had I drop the second tikka from my hand, than I ordered a new one for this ragged old man. I made the old man to sit on a stone bench, gave him a newly ordered “Fresh Food”, and also gave him some water.
It’s true that we need to help people in trouble, and this anybody would have done being in my place. Yet, my learning from this incidence is something different! When we brood over our daily life, we see that we complain about a lot of things. Especially, we complain of the food prepared at our homes. The usual tone is - “Amma the food sucks…”, Or to the wife, “No sign of salt or spice, can anyone call this a food, damn!” Now, I do not want to create a melodrama type serial set story to glorify the feats a middle-class woman who is oppressed by the society! This can be anybody’s case. We keep on cribbing about the quality and taste of the food without having regards to the love and efforts gone into making it. The next time we decide to complain about a food, we need to remember that ragged old man, who did not get even one square meal a day! He had to put his hands into the bin containing the left-overs! To survive, he had to live on half-eaten & thrown away food! Remember we have the comforts in having at our tables the “Freshly Cooked Food”.

It is not a good habit to waste food. We see that especially in marriage and other functions, where a lot of food it wasted. Part of this is because people are forced to get served, so much of quantity as is not required by them, in the name of shastras (or customs). Instead, you must take as much as you can eat; as much as your body requires. The rest you must give away in alms to people like the ragged old man. Do not waste food and do not crib about the food at your table!