Coffee or Cup

Food for thought

From past couple of days, I have been complaining about the awful looking cup (that the rental service providing company has provided to us). The cup is a medium size, plain, white surface and very basis looking. There is nothing fancy about this cup except the fact that the cup is able to hold enough coffee to quench my every now and then craving for coffee.

While I have been cursing and complaining about this cup and planning to go to the store to buy a coffee mug that is cheerful looking, I came across this article published in one of the blogs.

It is worth reading and sharing this 'modern day parable.'

Khushboo

             

Recently I happened to see the CNN Freedom project documentary titled, “Cocoanomics”.  It was compelling stuff about the life and conditions of Coffee plantation farmers living in Ivory Coast (the equatorial country that produces almost 40% of the world’s coffee bean). The featured documentary talked about the labor-intensive nature of the industry, the diseased and aging coffee plants as well as the issue of child labor. One of the most dis-believing part of this documentary was the fact that these coffee growers have had never tasted the chocolate before.

This was a good trigger point for me to write about the life of a coffee grower and so started doing the research. Many ideas and articles popped up that got me thinking as to where and how should I begin. Well most of the ideas (if not all) emerge from your backyard and so I decided to begin at the end of coffee value chain (i.e. Us) and work all the way upwards to the start of this value chain (i.e. the Coffee Grower). I have decided to split this into couple of blog posts mainly because of the length of the post. 

This is all that I have gathered as part of my research so far and will be using to draft my posts. 

Do read the post, "Coffee or Cup" that follows this post to get your dose of caffeine. 

Khushboo

Banana Facts 

Often we would have heard people saying that the fruit Banana is full of energy. Just like we need to have an apple a day to keep the doctor away..similarly we need to have one Banana a day to keep ourselves active. Banana gives us instant energy and charges us to the optimum. Ever wondered that the word Banana can have several meanings and a meaning that I recently discovered. Let me take you through all the meanings of Banana that i have come across so far and to that i will add a new meaning. 

Banana the fruit (no surprises here, we are all aware of this fruit)

Banana also stands for crazy (a kind of slang)

Banana if translated in Hindi will literary mean to "Make"

So i am going banana now. Let's put on our thinking cap and familiarise people of more usage of banana in literal parlance.

Khushboo

Food wastage and Fine

Food is vital for our life! With no food, the head hurts, body becomes energy less and memory power reduces. But too much food is also not good for the body and mind. So what should be done! Well its simple enough. Eat responsibly and eat well.

It has been just few days into this beautiful and carefree city of Switzerland otherwise known to outside world as Zurich. I am trying to grasp and understand at the same time, the functioning of domestic waste disposal mechanism, the traffic system and car driving norms to finding out the tram routes amongst other things.

While I am trying to make sense of these things, a certain article (rather I should say an initiative/campaign) caught my immediate attention. I have always believed that for anything to catch/or draw the attention; the thing/or object in the frame has to be either worthy enough or scandalous in nature. Well this article (or rather the act) definitely stood out for its daring and novel cause that perhaps has not gone too well with certain section of the society. But before I get into dissecting the article and sharing my own views on this act, let us together revisit the article of the hour.

The article whose headline reads out, “Swiss restaurant charges customers for not cleaning plates”, talks about a restaurant that in a bid to reduce food waste has implemented an unfinished food fine.

According to the local (an English daily) reported that a certain restaurant by name, “Patrizietta” who runs all you can eat buffets got fed up with customers taking more food then they could eat and then throwing the excess away. They therefore decided to cut back upon food wastage by charging 5 francs or about dollar 5.65, for leaving food on one’s plate. The idea as shared by the restaurant chef is not to offend or penalise the customers but to make people aware that food waste is a problem and it should be stopped for the betterment of economy, people and environment.

From the legal standpoint, charge for leaving too many leftovers is legal and customers are notified about the leftover fine on the menu card itself.

After reading this article and going through discussion forums, I wondered why so much of reaction on this good cause act. The benefit of this act is manifolds for e.g.

For the restaurant	For the people	For the environment
Economic utilisation of the resources and raw materials Less waste to dispose	Reduces unnecessary eating and therefore long term health benefits. Make people responsible for what/how much they eat.	Less waste so less dirt

 So in that regards, it makes a good BUSINESS CASE for the restaurant.

We also know and are aware of the food shortage being experienced by so many people across the globe. There are so many people both adult and children alike that are suffering from chronic undernourishment due to hunger that primarily stems from poverty including food shortage and inequitable distribution of food. It is well known fact to all of us that cause of hunger is much beyond food shortage and is deeply rooted into our political and economic functioning of the society at large. This can be seen as a small step in that direction.

Next time, if you see food being wasted or thrown away, think if there is some way to prevent the food waste.

Khushboo

Early days in the mystical land of Switzerland

Some people say it’s pristine; I say it’s a collective effort that is continuous…

I would call myself self proclaimed nomad or gypsy (a wanderer by heart and act). My reference to the clan would have rightly given you an idea that yet again this person has changed the place of living. Yeah! We have yet again changed our place from the comfort and daily chaos of our beloved homeland to a far off land surrounded by the magnificent Alps.

Couple of weeks back, I was listening to an interview where some esteemed guest shared his perspective on the advantages of uncomfortable state. He said and I rephrase, “being uncomfortable is a good thing because it sets you up for a challenge. It tests your grit and endurance thereby making you a more rationale and logical human being.” I absolutely second those sentiments.

Having agreed to the views, I also feel that uncomfortable state creates a sort of unsettling feeling in a person that if not handled well can lead to panic situations. It is therefore important that when you are in a new place (where everything is so new and different for you), follow these simple rules:

Observe things (practically everything big or small)--- Understand how people react and interact -----Engage in small talks ----Reach out to people for help ----Cultivate the art of listening

Oh! It is always so easy to preach, but honestly I am sharing the same unsettling feeling. But for now, I have decided to tactfully overcome this unsettling feeling and concentrate on the positives that the place has to offer.

So far, I have just experienced the NATURE of the place and that too from the inside of the glass wall of my home. The place or the neighbourhood is endowed with natural beauty. I can see lush green cover, curvy mountains that gets flattened in between and blocks of roof houses (mostly) with chimneys nicely sitting on top. I am able to hear birds chirping and church bells ringing every now and then. I am able to sense my closeness to nature. (See the picture on your right. It’s a representation of how the outside looks like from the inside of our home. This is all I could manage with my crude artistic and perspective view ability.)

It is wonderful to see how nature and human can still be together and thrive in harmony. In the world, where humans are demolishing the old architecture, deforesting the green covers and unearthing ground only to create an even sleeker looking building (or minaret), this place has done a fabulous job of balancing the two worlds – man and nature.

These are my early days in this mystical land… and the journey has just begun.

Khushboo