Today I cried. I cried because of a very strange reason. I was having my food in the afternoon. The food was good. After all I had made it. But much contrary to my these days habit, I took a little more food in my plate. More than I could have eaten. So as expected, I left more than half of it in my plate. Now I had to throw that food. I threw it. And that’s what made me cry. I was much surprised with my this act. Even I don’t know why I had cried.
I am generally quite a foody person. Though I eat less, but always try eating variety. Because of this habit, my mother always had been bringing variations in the daily staple food. And because of this habit, I had joined the Medical College Mess of my college as that was the mess where they were always maintaining quality and variety.
During those days, I was having a habit of leaving lots of food in the plate. And I was very arrogant about this habit. I remember, one day I was having my lunch with one of my friend in the Medical College Mess. As usual, I left quite some food in my plate after finishing my lunch. That friend probed me that why did have I left so much food in the plate? My reply was “I am paying for what I eat and what I am not eating as well”.
My reply was quite very arrogant that he didn’t have probed me any further.
After finishing my college, I joined a company in Mumbai that was paying me quite OK. But because of certain responsibility, that money was a little less than my requirement. So I faced situations, when I had to eat “Wada – Pao” many a times, especially in the last week of the month. There was time when I was having a kind of philosophy of paying not only for what I eat, but also for what I don’t eat. And then that was the time when it was Wada – Pao that was giving me the daily dose of nutrition and taste.
Joining job has given me a lot of insight about the surroundings. I became more observant about things. I had seen people craving for food. Forget the variety; have seen people praying for even a handful of food to eat. I have seen kids not able to fulfill their dream of becoming educated, as their parents were busy collecting money to earn at least one food of the day for their family. I have seen people searching for food in the garbage like an animal to find at least a bread to qualify for the prerequisite of survival.
These experiences had literally changed me and my thought for the food. Every time some food get left after taking my meal, the faces of those craving people ran through my eyes. Every time, I was seeing a left – out food in the plate of any person, those poor people searching for bread in garbage pass through my eyes.
My habit of leaving food in the plate get changed. Now, I generally do not leave anything in my plate. Now I take as much of food as I can eat in my plate.
And that is the reason why I cried today, when I myself have thrown the food that would have been used by some craving person for surviving. I was literally feeling like a killer of some hungry person. And that is why I cried. Quite dramatic but still I cried.
