Have you ever been questioned on something that you have always taken for granted and found yourelf wondering about the answer or the explanation? Have you been surprised by the fact that the answer doesnot come immediately even though you were so sure that it would? More importantly have you found yourself questioning your own actions after you've been forced to think? It can either be a torture when you fail to find an explanation for something that you've been doing without questioning or an uplifting experience when your introspection end up providing you with a justification to your convictions.
Vegetarianism has always been a way of life for me. India and life in India doesnot question it. The land tolerates vegetarianism with equal ease as it tolerates non vegetarianism. Born and brought up in a veg household, vegetarianism was a way of life, and later when I grew my own wings, it became a conscious choice. The society allowed it to be...no questions asked.
Then life got me to the West...and the defination of food changed. ' Vegetables are a side dish, they cannot possibly consitute the main course?'' asked incredulous voices. ''What about the nutrition part?'' and most disturbingly came the defensive ''Why should one not eat non-veg?'' WHY?? and the desire to explain to my friends as cohesively as possible led me to some introspection myself.....
The most obvious answer is of course ''I do not want to kill to eat'' which despite being the truth left me uncomfortable for it seemed to be insinuating that all those who do eat non veg are cruel, and that is indeed not so. Some of my non veg friends happen to be better people than Iam. Even more so, the next defensive statement invariably is ''even plants have life, quit that too!'' Much as we would hate to admit it, there was reason to the words. So, what were the reasons for my convictions? Why did I still feel reluctant to go the non veg way? I wanted to be able to put them into words.
I realised as I observed other cuisines that there are hardly any vegetarian main dishes. Meat, fish etc then, for the western world, is not non vegetarian, IT IS FOOD!! THE ALL IMPORTANT FOOD! Within cuisines here in the west there is no option to go veg or non-veg.....this option is equivalent to choosing between eating or not eating! Converting to vegetarianism within the western cuisines would be like slow-suicide, and surely no life is to be frittered away thus. No wonder people in the west cannot understand our insistence on vegetarian diet.
I realised that it is perhaps only the Indian cuisine which has delightul vegetarian contents and combinations that allow people to go vegetarian, and yet stay healthy! Our rotis and dals have no western counterparts. Not that lentils and vegetables are not available in the west. However, it is our recipes, the right combinations of spices, and the right food combinations that allow us to manage so beautifully on vegetarian diets all our lives. Centuries of knowledge of ayurved, telling us the right combinations, and health aspects of various plants and spices are firmly ingrained in our cuisines and culture. It is this knowledge that has allowed India to survive without killing to eat. We are but perhaps the only culture which has managed this no mean feat! Hence, if one were to go totally vegetarian one must switch to the Indian or similar diet to be able to continue. However, this option is not viable always for people not used to Indian cuisine. Set- tastes are not easy to change. I remember finding certain varities of cheese (delicacies in the west !) extremely repulsive despite knowing their health value! Similarly, people who are not used to Indian tastes and spices might not like to switch to an Indian diet, even if in-principal they want to go vegetarian.
That gets me to MY reasons for being vegetarian (for finally after all the introspection it was clear in my head)....Iam vegetarian because ''I do not want to kill to feed myself...as long as (and this is important!) there are veg options, which thanks to my Indian kitchen are plenty''. The day I am left without any option but the non-veg option, perhaps I too will eat meat (perhaps!) for there is far too much to do in a lifetime than to starve oneself.
As for the argument that plants also have life....I believe that everytime a chicken shrieks when its neck gets twisted or a fish gasps for breath, it registers somewhere on our subconscious. We however, learn to ignore that plea for life to be able to feed ourselves and satisfy our greedy tastebuds.....well, plants do not cry out for help! Vegetarians hence can at least pacify themselves that their soul does not have to cringe at that cry of help, and then harden up nevertheless, in order to be able to feed themselves.
