If you waste food , it will cry

If you waste   food  , it will cry

By

P.R.Ramachander

(Based on  excellent write up in Tamil  by my face book friend  Mannargudi  Sutaraman  Srinivasan . My acknowledgements   to him)

One day noon, I was taking   food  with my children,

Then I heard   the  loud   wail of some   one near by.

I searched   and found out  that two  grains of cooked rice,

Had fallen  down on my plate  , and it was they   who were wailing.

I went near  them , took them on my palm    and asked them,

Why are   you wailing  like  everything has been completely lost?
And they   with tears  in their eyes   started  telling me.

“once you know  our story , possibly   you also will cry.”

One poor poor farmer struggled,  took loan from everywhere,

And brought our seeds, he planted them    on the   field.

Many of the seeds   did not germinate  and many seedlings died,

And that poor one  transplanted    all the seedlings that were  left with him.

He looked after us well, though many rats damaged our sister seedlings,

And when we put out the grains, many   birds and pecked at them  killing our siblings,

And we who were  one of the few that   were left out  were  ready for harvest,

And while harvesting lots of our sisters   got lost on the   mud.

Then he winnowed us and among    those not selected   were  some our healthy susters,

And then that cultivator put   us all in a gunny bad and  tied them, further wasting many of us,

And  When we   were  being pounded to get the   rice that  you want there was further waste ,

And in the go down you came and sampled   and  throwing out some of us just like that.

You brought us home from the store, wasted some of us   while cleaning and washing,

But we escaped   during  all these occasions and after  being cooked have come to your plate,

And when you threw us out   for no fault   of ours , WE thought   of the many  struggles,

That we underwent  to reach this  far to become    your  food and    we naturally cried.

Have you  heard of the great  tamil poet Valluvar  , who used   to keep  ,

A needle as well  as cup of water   , while eating food  , so that,

If  some of us fall out of his leaf, he would   take   them by a needle  ,

Wash us in water   kept   and eat   us but never waste   us,.

Have you not heard   the Vedic saying  “Annam Brahma  “  which means,

“Food is God”   and another    great saying  “Annam bahu  Kurveetha,

Annam   na nindhyath.”  Meaning  “ Food   has very many uses,

And so do not  blame food”.For the sake of the world do not  waste us.