Reva Jhingan Malik uses a solar cooker to prepare all her meals—from regular vegetables and lentils to baking cakes and bread, roasting peanuts, boiling milk, and making tea.

The Bengaluru-based resident was motivated to reduce her carbon footprint amid the talks around protecting the planet.

Reva says, “When it comes to environmental protection, we keep expecting governments to act, but what have we done at our own individual levels towards the cause? That thought came as a turning point for me.”

She explored different ways to reduce her dependency on fossil fuels, at least at the daily living level. So, in 2020, she decided to discard LPG cylinders completely.

Since then, solar cooking has become her primary method of cooking. Such is the impact that Reva has not bought an LPG cylinder in the past four years.

Her solar cooker is about 2-feet in length and has three rectangular shaped containers to place various dishes like daal, vegetables, and rice separately.

“Once I add all food items to the solar cooker, I don’t have to keep stirring the pan and monitor the food. You just have to pull out the tray after two hours,” Reva says.

While she does most of the cooking in the solar cooker, she has also kept a firewood stove as a backup for cloudy and rainy days. “We use it only once or twice a month,” she adds.

For Reva, solar cooking is also cost-effective as she would get the LPG cylinder refilled every 2-3 months. This would cost Rs 1,200 per refill.

“We invested Rs 18,000 for the solar cooker. This was a one-time investment as there is no other recurring expense and maintenance cost,” she adds.

Reva finds solar cooking more convenient and easier than using an LPG stove. “Also, it’s guilt-free cooking. We are not exploiting our planet’s resources anymore,” she adds.