Last night my husband and I were taking a post-dinner walk in a nearby parking lot, where we saw a man bending over on the ground, crushing something with a rock. He was completely focused on his task and didn't look up at anyone passing by. We kept noticing him as we hung around the parking lot and guessed what he could be doing. I thought he was crushing stones to make sand, but why would he do that?
Finally we decided to go up and speak to him. He was crushing pieces of leftover bread that he collected from all his roommates to feed the birds that come there early morning. The large pieces of Indian bread would be difficult for the birds to eat, so he crushes them into a fine powder.
He's been doing this every night, by himself, for the last 3~4 years. What moved us more was that he was surprised when we were even taking an interest in this, since for him it wasn't a big deal. Every night, after reaching his bachelor accommodation from his job as a tailor, he goes around the village collecting leftover bread from all his housemates. He then eats a quick meal and comes here, and spends the next 1~2 hours, thoroughly crushing each piece and makes a neat pile for the birds, which will be gone by next evening.
When we asked him what motivates him to do this simple, small but committed act of service, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's just something small I do; so that the leftover bread doesn't go into the trash and the birds get food." We shared his story with the hope that it reminds us to be mindful of leftovers too and perhaps it might inspire someone to start something similar in their own area.
