Optimum resource utilization

(You shouldn't read this after eating. Or maybe you should.)

A "rice plate" or a "thali" in most generic restaurants here comes
with a couple of curries, a daal, chapathi, rice, yogurt in a small
bowl, a sweet and some sliced onions and lemon wedges, maybe a pickle.
That's usually a nice lunch, but not all gets consumed. Some don't
like the yogurt, some don't like the sweet and most leave behind the
peppers or stems of the curry leaves that come with the curries or
daal. This doesn't even include those that just can't finish their
food and leave behind half their daal or something.

After a few week of getting lunch delivered to the office ("dabba" or
"lunch box") I decided to eat out for a few days, just to mix it up. I
went back to my old haunt "Mala's Inn" a regular lunch area for people
in my office. I was surprised by the change in the demographic. Now
the place was flooded with kids from some technical school nearby and
there wasn't a single person from my office. Luckily I brought a book
with me and I read it as I had my lunch.

A 30-ish guy sat in front of me and ordered a "rice plate". I didn't
pay any attention to him except to note that he got the rice plate,
and that his plate arrived just as my food (chapati and curry) did. As
I wrapped up my lunch, I looked up and was surprised by the empty
plate and bowls in front of me. Not only were they just devoid of
food, they were "even out of the basic elements of food". Not a
pepper, grain of rice, speck of curry in them. As I sat there stunned
at this excellent display of resource utilization, the fun began.

He had finished consuming his yogurt, and he poured water into the
bowl, rinsed it and drank it up. He did this one more time. The he
washed his hands into the same small bowl, using the lemon wedge
(usually lemon wedges are provided in finger bowls to help get rid of
the grease from the fingers). Then he added salt to bowl, stirred the
liquid with his finger and drank it up again!

Ewww!

Now look, I'm all for being efficient, and I really hate wasting food.
And, for what it's worth, the guy didn't exactly lick the table or
something. Anything that went into his body was actually meant to go
into his body. All the same, I think there's something to be said for
being a little wasteful and throwing away the water you've washed your
hands in!