A month or so back me and some of my friends went to an Italian restaurant at Pitt Street. After careful study of the menu, I decided tat I wanted the Prosciutto Pizza – the toppings seemed to be wonderful! So when the waitress came to take the order, I ordered the Prosciutto pizza & then to be sure, I asked here btw, what exactly is Prosciutto??? She said its ham & I was like “Uh!!! OK, can you bring me the Prosciutto Pizza without the Prosciutto please.” And she burst out laughing. It took me a moment to realize what a dumb request that was. I could have just asked her to get me a pizza with roma tomatoes, olives, basil, baby rocket & mozzarella as toppings! Incidents of dumbness like these are not common in my life. I like to put the blame on the two glasses of wine that I had already had in the evening. But, the fact is that I am a vegetarian and no, you cannot read that to mean a LOSER!!! So before you start rolling your eyes and pitying me, do take a few minutes to read what I have to say.
I was born in a vegetarian family. My family consists of an ardent bunch of vegetarians because of religious reasons. Violence against all living creatures is prohibited & that includes killing to satiate your own hunger. I must admit that I am a “nastik” or a non-believer in any kind of organized religion and religion is definitely not the reason why I am a vegetarian. Also, I am not part of any animal rights – animal protection movement and frankly I don’t give a damn about any such movement. Neither am I overtly fond of animals. In fact, other than horses and watching the big cat on Nat Geo, I practically do not want anything to do with animals – I literally dislike them!!!
So, the big question is why am I still a vegetarian? And, I must admit that the only reason I am a vegetarian is because I cannot imagine consuming meat/flesh/ blood. It is as simple as that. I have been brought up in a tradition where I was programmed to hate the very idea of killing & after 26 hard years of believing that a particular act is hateful, I really cannot change it and frankly do not want to change it.
Even though the philosophy behind why we should not kill animals for our food is quite admirable, I personally think it is against the laws of nature. We humans sit on the top of the food chain and are thus, by logic, meant to be killing other species for our consumption. I can understand, and really appreciate, when people are vegetarians/vegans for medical reasons, or because their religion prohibits it, but other than that, my logical brain does not agree to the fact that all human beings should turn into herbivorous creatures. I keep hearing this nonsense about the adverse effects on the environment, your health, your attitude, your behavior etc. just because you are a meat lover! I just cannot believe it! Is not the key word here moderation & balance? Excess of anything is bad for us. You drink excessively – it is bad, you smoke excessively – it is bad, you eat excessively – it is bad! You sleep excessively – it is bad! In the same way, if you eat meat excessively it will be bad for your health! What happened to the whole idea of balanced diet? We all know that a small portion of meat is a requisite in any healthy, balanced diet. You need to complement it with lots of greens and some carbs too! So what is this whole business of people trying to sell the big idea that if you eat meat, you will have heart problems, your blood PH will be adversely affected etc? I am not saying that these medical facts are not correct, but you will have these problems only if you consume meat in excess quantities and do not supplement it with anything else. You need to be aware of the requirements of your body and maintain control over what you eat. That is the key.
Some people say that animals too have feelings, they too are sensitive creatures and it is not morally correct to kill them because of the pain it causes them. This is the only point of view that I agree with. I believe that when you kill someone (animals are not something please, they are definitely someone), it definitely hurts them. But does the solution lie in us all becoming vegetarians? Should we never kill animals for our food & let the entire food chain and the ecological balance go haywire? I think not. The solution lies in having better slaughter houses. You should have separate areas for slaughtering animals and no animal should be allowed to see the slaughter of another animal. Yes, I think this is the key. Animals too have brains and can understand what is happening. Imagine yourself standing in a line to be killed and slowly but surely the queue is shrinking and you see your fellows being killed right in front of you. Will that not be terrible? Every moment you will be sure to die a horrific death & I can imagine that it cannot be a very nice feeling. So, I think the solution lies in the government and all animal protection bodies doing something to get better slaughter houses in place.
Also, if you really care about animals, please do something to take care of your pets and treat them like family. Please do not kill animals for your furs and mink coats! Also, there are better ways to take care of environment than to start eating only veggies. What about starting to plant trees or just garden vegetables? And do not give me the excuse that you do not have a garden. You can start growing stuff in pots and keep them on your balcony. As for keeping your heart healthy the simplest solution is to do regular exercise and go for a balanced diet.
Cheers
Priya
Its world food day today……..every year they have a new theme. This year’s theme is:”Achieving food security in times of crisis”.
