Sunday, April 19, 2009

Story of a Wishful Donkey

I have always wanted to write good children's stories. Posted one on sulekha.com and they found it good enough to make it a featured story which, to me at least, was a great compliment. Somebody read it and thought it good enough to ask others to read? Enough for me! :)

http://nandaramesh.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/04/stripes-story-of-a-wishful-donkey.htm

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Food, taste and hunger

A friend forwarded a link to this short film, Chicken-a-la-Carte by Ferdinand Dimadura, made for the category, "Food, taste and hunger", at the 56th Berlin International Festival. It won the top prize. The film looks primarily into how we waste food when there are people who desperately are looking for nutrition. This message is delivered using a very simple story with considerable impact.

It should be made mandatory viewing here in India as it is quite appalling to watch people waste considerable amounts of food at buffets and marriage halls. In both situations it is not difficult for the person concerned to gauge what they want and how much they can eat and get served accordingly. To me, most of the times the wastage is inexcusable. I wonder if even 50% of this wastage was reduced how much that could make a difference to those in desperate need of food.

My theory is that if we reduce waste, the amount of food saved will eventually trickle down to those that require it the most, assuming the food production is kept the same for the basic items such as rice, wheat, vegetables, etc., Something to keep in mind before you pile food on your plate even though you are not that hungry or you dont know if you will like some item or not and then dump 1/2 of it into the garbage pile...

The movie link:
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte