A CRIMINAL

Experiences of life are funny, overwhelming, unprecedented, soul-stirring, sliding.

My fellow-passenger in the return flight from Bangkok was a handsome Vietnamese young man of early twenties. Our brief exchange of conversations revealed that he is a communication specialist graduated from Belgium, an ardent follower of Yoga and meditation and visiting India to take a short course on meditation in Rishikesh.

But the point was not that.

Our interaction kicked off in an extremely unusual way that I never thought can happen in a flight.

It happened when I just completed my dinner and on the verge of taking a sip from the orange juice but interrupted by his gentle tapping on my hand. I turned my face to my side to only hear his bizarre and totally unexpected request, ‘can I have your left-over food?’ I was shocked. My surprises knew no bounds. What’s he saying? ‘I am still hungry.’ He said in his politest voice. I shifted my eyes to his dish to discover only few pieces of stale chicken bones lying over there. ‘Why can’t you ask for one more food packet from the flight-attendant?’ I enquired with the intention to get out of the embarrassing situation but he declined by saying that passengers are not entitled for a second bite in the flight. ‘I can ask them on behalf of you,’ there was certain level of palpable desperation in my responses to him but he disagreed with similar politeness and asked again, ‘can I take your left-over food please? I am damn hungry.’ But I was damn hesitant to pass over the food to him as I spat over them minutes back after digging my teeth with a tooth-pick. ‘I spoilt the food just now after spitting over them. You can’t take them. I am sorry.’ My voice was suddenly chocked with guilt. ‘It’s alright.’ Replied the young man. ‘I think I can manage with water.’ He showed me the tiny half-filled water-bottle with a beaming smile. Suddenly my eyes fell on the left-over dessert that I had scooped only once to put inside my mouth. ‘You mind to take the dessert?’ I was dying to give me at least some breathing space this time. ‘I didn’t spoil it except taking just one scoop from it.’ The young man’s smile widened for a while after getting the much-desired dessert and I got the much-awaited relief in return.

It says that life events are many times stranger than fictions. It says life events teach faster than rest of the teaching media.

Wasting food is a crime and spoiling the wasted food is even a bigger crime.

The Vietnamese communication cum Yoga specialist exposed my crime in a subtle but unthinkable way.

At least the subsequent few minutes inside the loo kept my sight away from the mirror to avoid eye-contact with a criminal.

The criminal in none other than me whom I had failed to recognise before.

Reviews

[Tony Jordan]

Eating food from another's plate or anything seems to get people's ugh-reflex into overdrive and I guess it's natures way of protecting us (but then we'll gladly share saliva in a deep kiss with a stranger on the dance floor !! lol).
I guess we all should look at our behaviors regarding food waste or food use, should I say.
Nicely done ecological/humanitarian piece.

[Afsheen Khan]

wonderful piece of work. keep up the good work.

[Coyote Poetry]

A lot said in the story. You made the reader think. In the USA. 1300 pounds of food wasted daily. A great sin. I enjoyed your words and thoughts my dear friend.
Coyote