Wastage in Mess
Seeing the plates of many in the mess after they finish their meals in mess brings up several serious questions: about their civic sense, about their bringing up, about their eligibility to be called responsible members of the society.
There are people who waste more food than they can eat; often what can be seen wasted from one plate could have made a plentiful meal for someone.
The evil there would have been partly ameliorated had there been so much food that noone went without food in spite of this wastage. However, it's an everyday affair that people arriving towards the end of the mess timing miss out on some or the other dish. Especially if the item is supposedly special (gulab jamun, fruit juice etc.), people horde like famished, never considering that people arriving later may have to go without it.
Very sad!
Quite amusingly, while, the cartoon was drawn with a specific message in mind, the interpretations drawn provided a precious lesson about viewer's role.
One branch concentrated on the main character -- the beautiful girl. Many likened her to one girl in the IISc campus. The interpretations that followed this observation were again in two directions. Some thought, I harboured some strife for her; while some others thought I had a crush on her! :)
The second branch of interpretation was about showing a girl wasting food. I faced quite a severe reprimand from some ultra-feminist elements for inadvertently indicating that only girls wasted food. A lady acquaintance of mine actually stopped me in the mess and showed how much food her boyfriend had wasted: 'See! Even guys waste food!' said she. :D
Comments
If the sketch would be that of a guy, SOME guy will point out to his (or somebody else's on nobody's) girlfriend that Look, She's wasting food too! There'll be comparisons drawn with whom he looked like!
Just because the girl looked like someone who's rather well noticed, the spirit of the cartoon is lost.......
But as I said, that gave me a precious lesson about keeping an eye on the various ways a cartoon (or any art) could be interpreted.
Not letting unwanted messages flow across makes the whole thing even more challenging.
Its the same reason why Mr. Laapataa (run'o'the mill researcher) is depicted with spectacles, beard, uncombed hair and a lost look. :)
@Sujju Bahi...
Go right ahead and put down what you want.. Keep them natural! :)
Hitesh Jogiya(finished his corse and left the institute) had put up this issue in the notice board. But people are not well educated enough to understand that wasting food is a crime.....
It should be "people are not educated enough to understand that wasting food is a crime.....
dont bother abt the (mis)interpretations... liked this one.
Mr. Sujit, please continue your good work. don't go on the defensive because some people don't want to call a spade a spade.
Ms. Pritesh, when it comes to heavyweights like you, you are responsible of a different sort of wastage of food, that of hogging beyond what is necessary. don't judge other girls by your standards.
we a group at IIT Madras were actually doin a problem analysis of food wastage in IITM mess.the final presentation is tomorrow.do u think u can give us any additional inputs.asap.
Sorry! I am not in a position to provide you with any further data on this. First reason is that I have no idea what kind of inputs you would like to get from me, second the time is really short, and third, since I myself am out of the campus now, it will take some work to trigger a data gathering exercise, though I am still in a position to do so.
It will be good if responsible residents of the two premier institutes (IITM and IISc) could collaborate on this and other noble causes.
Thanks for writing!
Sujit