To Eat or Not to Eat

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Food has always been a problem with me.

When I was really hungry and famished and wanted to gorge, there was not much food to eat and I had to make do with Tea and Singaras (Samose'). I am sure this is true with all students and employees forced to live in Hostels and Otherlands than their Motherlands during their youth.

And when I had all the food I wanted in the world, my interest waned away...food was a punishment due to a stomach that shrank and couldn't digest more than one meal a day; and teeth that decayed from smoking continually for 14 years.

Wastage of cooked food is something that pains me immensely; not due to any moral principle or bias, but due to a bringing-up in childhood in a family where food was precious. My pen-friend Edwin Taylor forbade me to set foot on the US Soil, knowing this predilection of mine. He tells me that everything is giant-size in the US and wastage is routine.

How much food do we really need and in what dosages depends on individual capacity and work-ethic.

I see Daily Laborers in India work unusually hard (even in this mechanized age) and make do with a few morsels. They are very happy to eat their meager lunch and relish their onion, mirchi and rice (licking their fingers) much more than the Participants of the Conference and Convention Meals that go on inside the 5-Star hotels they build.

At IIT KGP there used to be a Convocation Lunch which was supposed to be free for the Senate Members (about 250 at one time). I never understood why a Free Lunch should at all be there for an essentially Academic Event. I used to routinely get a nicely got-up Invitation Card (rather than just a Circular or e-mail) with a routine RSVP. I used to at once ring up Gangulisaab and tell him that I won't be there and he would laugh knowingly...

Anyway, I always had one less than the usual BLSDS (Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner, Supper) at 30, two less at 40, 3 less at 50 and 4 less after 60:

Nowadays, I have just one Full Meal at 8 AM and then just Tea and Sprite rest of the day. And the Full Meal consists of all the left-overs taken from the fridge, mixed in a Micro-Oven-Compatible Standardized Bowl, heated for 8 minutes and eaten, away from public gaze, in my Blogger's Room: eating and mating ought to be intensely private affairs {;-}

This keeps me free the whole day...

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Ek bhuk Mahayogi
Dwibhuk Mahabhogi
Tribhuk Maharogi
Chaturbhuk Mahadrohi

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