After retirement, Adwait's father (my father-in-law) started to work in small factory in Aurangabad. When he came down to Bangalore for work, he stayed with us. After having lunch, we began to chat.. him, Adwait and me. Adwait said, ''I am thinking of selling my Enfield. Probably, I can buy a bike which gives better average." Adwait's father and I just fell silent. We knew how Adwait loves biking and his Royal Enfield. He can spend hours to make that bike shine. I could almost feel his pain. Adwait continued,"I will waste less petrol, by doing so. We have no right to discuss about ever increasing prices if we keep wasting things." He is right. Absolutely right. Adwait's father said, "one day, after lunch I heard two workers chatting. One said, it is so costly to educate children these days! I have to pay Rs. 4,000 this month to my daughter's school. The other said, what? Is it so costly? How will you manage? The first one replied, we will try and pull as much as we can. Otherwise, one day, along with my daughter I will.... (commit suicide)." Oh dear lord! My mind was numb.. All these days, I heard of such thing only in news and in news papers about farmers in Maharashtra. However, Adwait's father knew these workers. They worked under him everyday.. I asked, "How much are they paid every month?" He said, "Not much. four to five thousand a month." I had no idea that majority of the working class earned so little. When I began my Ph.D, I was paid 12,000 and I hardly kept a track of how I spent. I felt so ashamed..Right now, dal costs close to Rs. 100/kg. How the hell was this worker going to eat? Largely, these people will then stop eating rice which is part of their staple diet. Or they will try and eat other pulses.. This whole thing is crazy.. The main occupation of our country is 'suppose' to be farming and we import the most basic ingredients of meal. We import fruits.. what not? It has been two years since I saw indian apples in shops.. Apples are now Rs. 180/kg in Bangalore. Who can afford that? We know all the figures.. these many people can not have two meals a day.. What do we do about it?? We blame the government and every other thing we can think of, but never ourselves.
It is time for action, people. Take a moment and think. Have you gone to marriages where they arrange a buffet? Do we look at the baskets where we keep used plates? There is so much food wasted.. thrown away..
And it is not only food.. time, money, resources, intelligence.. everything. Let us think and use. Let us use wisely. Let us not waste..
I used to give reason of running short of time. Then I really sat down and thought, can't I organize things in such a way that I will still have some time to make sure that I do not waste anything? Is it really so impossible? Obviously not! Now, it is not that I am managing it all.. but, I have started. Taken a step ahead. I ask you to think.. and find ways that you can use things in a better way and try not to waste. We can make it happen.
It is time for action, people. Take a moment and think. Have you gone to marriages where they arrange a buffet? Do we look at the baskets where we keep used plates? There is so much food wasted.. thrown away..
And it is not only food.. time, money, resources, intelligence.. everything. Let us think and use. Let us use wisely. Let us not waste..
I used to give reason of running short of time. Then I really sat down and thought, can't I organize things in such a way that I will still have some time to make sure that I do not waste anything? Is it really so impossible? Obviously not! Now, it is not that I am managing it all.. but, I have started. Taken a step ahead. I ask you to think.. and find ways that you can use things in a better way and try not to waste. We can make it happen.
7 comments:
Guys let me tell you .. I have been seeing these things around and been discussing these things for a long time now and I felt its time for the hard stop .. I read a board near the Bharat Electronics Ltd. office in bangalore .. it's a saying by Mahatma Gandhi. "There's enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed". Many times when I am coming home late in the night I see huge truck loaded with waste food from hotels and I am amazed to see that. I don't ask people to stop enjoying .. u just have to be cautious while using any natural resource. 'khana phek ke kyon masti me aate ho khanaa khaa ke aao'. 100s of ppl come to office in their own cars all alone. Honda city, innova civic are petrol thirsty beasts. If there are more than 2 you can always bring car. All the scarcity is created by inefficient use of resources. Once i was coming home from office on my bullet of course(a dumb thing), and there was this old guy around 40-45kgs, with glasses as thick as sodawater bottle and riding his cycle !!! he can not afford petrol coz of price resultant of scarcity. People should start thinking wisely now. All these so called techies, go outside the tech park and eat,fag,take in small shops outside it park, all these shop owners throw this stuff across the rd. why can't these people stop buying stuff from him until he starts managing waste.. everyday a tractor comes to collect this even then these guys throw stuff just like that.. I can keep writing .. but shd stop or Nandini will kill me right away :-)sorry ga !!
Hello guys.... Couldn't restrain myself posting a comment since the subject is so much thought inspiring. I too observe people wasting food in my office. It hurts pretty bad. I see poor people outside the office going hungry and people here are so arrogant that they throw away food just because it was not up to their taste. The thing is in corporate offices food is free so people don't care. I am not against over eating but one shouldn't waste a single morsel. Some people take pride in having leftovers in their dish. Its "supposedly" a mark of riches. What to say ?
P.S. One caution while eating those shining apples: take out the wax put on them by scratching on their skin.... saw it on TV !!
wow.. you are absolutely right !! these things i am ashamed to admit here that i never thought about them seriously before. i applaud adwait's decision to sell his bike.. that is a real big heart he has. your point is absolutely right and well point taken.. action will be take by me too :D
Thank you :) I really intend that as many people as possible read this blog and do as much as they can.. Currently, I am reading some books about the real people who really sacrificed so much for the society and their names are still unheard of. I am not even a tiny point in front of their humongous work. But, when all tiny points are summed, there will be significant change. I am very hopeful about this :)
I've been trying not to waste any food @ home/outside for quite some time..
it does work..
good blog!
Write something similarly on politics and voting..
A very mature thought process expressed to perfection. I hope people get the message that is intended to be put across ... and try to move a step forward from where they are today. Good work, Nandini !
nice to read, good...translating the same into action is difficult. But pursuing the same as way of life will be great. Its good that we have started. Some examples that i could give to you from my life include a hobby that my mom started when she found the time is so tough and engage in something so that the dawn and the dusk comes closer. In our quarters which is situated in the Wellington Island, cochin( build on 1965) she started a small garden in the roof, apparently converting that into green roof. She started the same just by using kitchen waste and by mud. Our green roof now include chillies tomato, different tubers, brinjal and ladies finger.For many months our green roof served them the best by organic food and saving the money and moreover making their life better. Her act also helped my father who that time become the engineer in charge of water supply and sanitation. Even though our island is in the backwaters we are always in a 'no water state'. Also chickun guniya and dengu etc. I remember it was a hard time for him to manage all these for him. Many sleepless nights. But he got the inspiration from mom and started acting by providing proper sanitation packs and informing about the water status and the efforts departments has taken. This made many people to use water wisely. And regarding the sanitation he also informed the folks on green roofs and many house wives followed the same.
During these days-celebrating singlehood- I am just thinking how could we utilize the e-waste lying down inIOB. Cant we help some one to earn or to get educated and many more. That seen and the attitude what we (researchers) show is in a way 'disturbing'. Its time to act...Hope for a better tomorrow.
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