Two Puris

Recently, I attended a dinner at a friend’s house in Varanasi. While we were eating, I noticed a friend discarding two puris*, saying they had absorbed too much oil. Curious, I asked what would happen to those puris. The person who had picked them up said he would throw them in the dustbin. I took the puris from him and began eating them. Though the person who discarded them gave me a disdainful look, I didn’t mind; I just didn’t want to waste them.

With so many people still going hungry in various parts of the world, I consider such food wastage a crime.

But this is not the first case. I recall when I was a student at Banaras Hindu University and went on a geological excursion to Jabalpur. One day, we visited a restaurant offering a full meal at a fixed price. Some of my friends mischievously took more food than they could eat, leaving substantial leftovers. 

The restaurant owner objected and demanded extra money, arguing that he could provide as much food as they could eat but not to waste. However, my friends refused to pay, and the situation escalated into a physical altercation. I calmly asked the restaurateur for the cost, paid him, and had the leftover food packed and given to the beggars outside.

We view food as offerings from Goddess Annapurna, and wasting these offerings is unacceptable, even if you have the financial means to do so. Wasting food is, after all, a waste of national resources.

Moreover, think about the journey food takes from the farm to your plate. The time and effort invested by many people along the way should not be disregarded. Wasting food shows disrespect for their labour.

Food wastage has become a major global issue, causing environmental damage, economic losses, and hunger. Every year, millions of tons of edible food are thrown away, putting more pressure on natural resources and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing organic matter in landfills.

To combat food wastage, strategies such as improving food storage and transportation to extend shelf life, encouraging better meal planning and portion control to reduce household waste, and promoting food recovery initiatives to redirect surplus food to those in need can be implemented at a macro level. 

Additionally, raising awareness about the environmental and social impacts of food waste at the individual level is crucial for fostering more responsible consumption and waste management practices.

*P.S. Puri or poori, is a type of deep-fried bread, made from unleavened whole-wheat flour. 

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–Kaushal Kishore 

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