WASTE NOT

A recent Hindi film showcased the modern Spanish festival in which revellers throw tomatoes at each other just for fun. It is pertinent to note that the origins of the festival can be traced to a brawl in 1945 in Bunol, where tomatoes got used as weapons. In the initial years, the authorities would round up the revellers but later they got around to organising the festival!

Inspired attempts to recreate the fest in Goa were squashed by indignant citizens who decried the criminal waste of food in a world where hunger is rampant due to food scarcity. It was heartening to note condemnation from all quarters to the event. But the larger question remains whether such public posturing will result in a conscious attempt to ensure that food does not get wasted.

So often, at parties, in hotels, in homes… food finds its way to the garbage bin. Such callous attitudes reflect a deep insensitivity to those who go hungry. A lot of modern traditions flaunt the unkind revelry of excessive waste of food. While it is good to see the opposition to the heartless event, it would be better to inculcate practices that are sensitive to the larger world that we belong to.

The planet earth is our common home. The resources – food, water, energy, fuels, ecology, etc – belong to collective ownership. When some of us abuse our privileges to waste resources; it results in the denial of the resources to the less privileged brethren. We have to move beyond condemnation of public fests that involve wastage… we must inculcate personal habits that align with that outrage.

A rising voice against waste is the right thing to do...
But let’s BE BETTER at aligning personal practices, too!

- Pravin K. Sabnis