It occured to me how I never shared with my readers my evolution into a vegetarian. It happened after a post on selfishness and the post following it (which carried forward the issue raised in ‘Selfishness’). The comments that were left on those two posts also helped me make up my mind.
After having witnessed the Mumbai terror attacks (albeit via TV and newspapers), I am crystal clear about my stand and feel good about it. For our survival, we need to destroy something or someone. In other words, selfless survival is not possible. The only thing that we can do, if we do want to keep living, is to choose how cruel we want to be.
All of the following are forms of destruction, but in increasing order of cruelty (that’s a personal opinion):
- killing plants to feed ourselves
- killing animals to feed ourselves when there is nothing else to eat
- killing animals to feed ourselves even when plants are available
- killing animals for pleasure / luxury clothing / luxury bags
- killing a human-being when it is absolutely necessary for our survival
- killing a human-being for any other reason than that mentioned above
Terrorists would belong to the last group (most cruel) and a vegetarian would belong to the first group (least cruel). Gandhi had gone a step ahead – he had even stopped eating killed plants and had taken to only fruits (further less cruel). I might not be Gandhi but I asked myself if it was possible for me to climb down the cruelty ladder at least by one step. The answer to that was an obvious ‘yes’ – and that was when I stopped eating animal flesh.
Since this change had happened before I had left for London, my decision had ensured that it wasn’t going to be easy for me there. Unlike India, the veg platter never has much to offer in UK. Also, it felt odd to refuse the chicken cooked with so much love by Bua in Leeds (she obviously wasn’t aware of the transition) that I ate it quietly. I should have realized this earlier that she would have definitely prepared the favourite dish of everyone in my household – when her nephew was visiting her house for the first time. But eating the chicken that night, didn’t change anything. I know that I am a vegetarian now and I shall remain one for the rest of my life because there is no other way I can be true to myself.
18 replies on “The story of my transition into a Vegetarian”
yoyo…me a veggie too..
though i like eggs ocassionally..
I am not too sure about eggs and milk so far. I need loads of protein for my muscles. But I have this feeling that over a period of time and after doing some more research on how painful it is for animals to let humans suck away their milk or rob away their eggs, I might give up on dependence of animals completely.
As I believe in progressing step by step because I want my decisions to be sustainable – not some random short-term urge.
hmm….from whatever lil knowledge of biology that i have…a female animal produces milk to feed it’s young one …now in case of animals like cow/buffalo, the milk is produced in a huge quantity and not all of it can be consumed by their offspring and it’s not advisable to leave the rest of it inside the animal’s body..(maybe ytou have heard of the breat pump that mothers use..it’s for the same purpose)
all the same, i think this article will help u in ur research.
http://www.mothercow.org/oxen/peta-letters.html
Soyabean has proteins.
Pulses have proteins.
shru shur ka josh hai ! murga dekhtey hi muh mein pani aa jayega !! sara baba pani nikal jayega 😛
many times,the way plants are grown in non hygienic environment, so its difficult to say what exactly cruelty is??
most of the times, we dont give a significant consideration to the fact that plants are LIVING BEINGS. as a simple matter of fact, life has to depend on other life. there are carnivorous plants as well
Protein / weight is high for eggs. But of course, this is no excuse. I only have to develop feelings for them before I start eating them. 🙂
Lets see. 🙂
I agree with all that you said.
Thanks for the article Prachi.
dekha u left it ….. u r followin my footsteps … heheheh
its good bhai…
🙂
Since,
you have mentioned about the order of cruelty…
Again I would like to say, that this order is based on a baised preference for humans. Deep inside us, we believe that we are the best evolved and existing form of life in nature. That MAY NOT be true.
Clearly, on a very broader view, nature doesnt really care what we do..It has simply set some rules (thats what is most convenient for all of us to believe the reasoning behind evolution). Truly speaking, nature may not count on us at all. And whatever we are doing, it ultimately comes back to us from nature.
ok..too much to say…lemme conclude by saying that…
Leaving non veg on these grounds of cruelty, may not be of sufficient VALUE over the long term…lets think of something else which really can convince us about the need of the hour.. “The VEG” so to say.
kya karen…jitni baar main ye article padhta hun..utni baar ek ek naya thought aa jata.. 😎
well, once again talking about cruelty..
lets just consider an example of killing a goat for meat and killing of humans by militants…
in some cases militants have been nurtured by ill treatment of govt, which, in some way or the other, make each of us hold some fraction of responsibility for that ill treatment with people in kashmir or northeast for example. So, in a sense militants, may have a reason or vendettta against us.
Whereas, when u kill a goat for its meat, it hasnt done anything to you at all..so u r killin more inncocent life than human life.
NOW…which is more CRUEL???
It’s not enough to have a reason to kill an animal / human. What matters is how acceptable your reason is – to you.
I am not advocating Vegetarianism. All I am saying here is that, I don’t consider my taste for chicken a good enough reason (to me) to kill a bird. And therefore to be true to my thinking, I don’t see why I should eat non-veg.
I won’t compare killing goats to killing humans. Who does the killing and why is the killing done will determine which is more cruel of the two acts – and even that would depend on the person doing it. I don’t see a universal rule here.
well …we r saying the same thing…i also dont see any universal rule..
but my point was that your reason MAY not be enough to avoid eating nonveg for long term..I suggest to look out for some deeper reasons..
PS: I am also veg 😀
I love animals too.
They are so tasty.