There was a village named Ratanpur. It was a very remote place in Gujarat. In that village most of the villagers are poor. In that village there was a family of 8 people. The parents and 6 children. The family was extremely poor. The father was working as a servant in a rich man’s farm. He was not earning much so he hardly could feed his children properly. His wife earned some money by working in others houses. But still the wheel of poverty was turning so fast that they were not able to cop up with it. If they get something to eat in the morning , they had to worry about the evening.
In such a scenario, one day the father was bitten by a snake while working in the farm. And he died on the spot. That was the last nail in the coffin. The mother was so shocked that she was almost dead. So other villagers took care of the children and the children could have something to eat then.
But as 7 days passed the villagers stopped sending food to the kids. The wheel of poverty was now at the top speed. The family members did not get food even a single time of the day. The mother started to work even more now but she could not do much.
So the eldest son started to work in place of his father. The eldest son was only 17 years old. But he had to work very hard even to gather enough money which could buy food for his brothers and sisters. His childhood was ruined by the dragon of poverty. All the children were having only bones and no muscles because of improper food supply. Instead of milk the mother sometimes fed the children with the a special milk. The milk is made up of the flour dissolved in water. The kids were not able to justify the reality of the condition and trying to survive their fate.
But the destiny has written something else for them. As because of the heavy work the eldest son was ill. He was not able to go to work. The poor mother had a very serious question to answer : whether she buy food for her kids or she buy medicines for her sick son. This question was an acid test for a mother because only motherhood doest differentiate among the children. But this mother had to take a decision and she took. She bought food for her remaining kids. The son was about to die and mother was helplessly watching him. At that time the youngest son came there and asked his mother that my brother was going to die ? It is good if he dies ? She said no and asked why ? Because he was so young that he could not understand what is death ? Mother was curious to know the answer. The son replied if my brother dies, we will get enough and good food to eat at least for seven days. The mother got frozen and so do I ?
Because this is a serious question for all of us. We waste the food in many ways and the largest waste is during functions. We don’t have right to do that because in a case when a younger brother is praying the God for his elder brother’s death just to get enough food for seven days and in a function we take a full dish and then instead of eating we throw away food. So please don’t waste food. Please think of that little child before wasting even a single bite.
