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Credit: DH illustration
The slogan ‘gareebi hatao’ reminds me of an anecdote my grandfather had narrated years ago. Once upon a time, a rich merchant asked a poor labourer to deliver 300 bananas to the temple priest for puja several kilometres away from the village in pursuit of divine blessings. But the rich man forgot to give the poor man money for lunch.
The labourer delivered the bananas to the priest and returned with a slip that said, “I received 294 bananas for puja.” The angry owner tied the poor labourer to a tree, thrashed him, and asked what happened to the other six, to which the labourer replied that he was hungry and had no money to buy food, so he ate them. Later that night, the rich man had a dream. The god himself appeared in his dream and said, “Thank you for the bananas. The six bananas you gave me were delicious.” A puzzled merchant asked, “Only six? I had sent 294!” to which the divine replied, “I don’t know about those 294, but the six that reached me were delicious.”
That which reaches a poor man’s stomach reaches god.
A Udupi hotel I frequented during my visits to the public library in Chennai started a unique concept of writing on a board visible to all its patrons the details about the waste of food, like, “Today’s food wastage is 100 kg, which could feed 100 poor, hungry people.” This concept, pioneered by Ratan Tata, is now followed by many hotels. I feel a picture is better than a thousand words. Hotels could use a picture, photograph, or video to remind those enjoying an expensive meal at the restaurant the importance of food.
A smile on the face of a poor man to whom I gave a food packet, who perhaps was going to sleep hungry under the bridge, is God’s blessing, which reminded me of my grandfather’s story.
Though we discuss technological advancement and identify with spirituality, the fact that millions are hungry rarely finds a mention in our conversations.
Every time we think of wasting even a morsel of food, we should remember that millions of people on this planet go to bed without food. Mahatma Gandhi said, “To a man with an empty stomach, food is god.” Let us pledge that if we can’t feed 100 people, at least feed one.