Thursday, October 20, 2005

Vegetarian: To be or not to be, that is the question

Yeah as those who have been through some of my posts might know, i am a vegetarian.
And i guess for those who arent from india it would be surprising that i had never had meat for all of 24 years of my life. Well that was till tonight.

At WHU there are a lot of company presentations for final placements. And after that there is the dinner. As we Indians need special work permits to work in europe (visas) so though we dont really expect to join these german firms but we never the less go for the free dinner.

There is one presentation a week and thus we do manage to save our selves from the hassle of cooking and well where theres free food i really dont care.

But tonight it was slightly different. The supposedly reputed Management Consulting firm did not sponsor dinner but just drinks and some snacks (Yeah not paying for full dinner and they epect me to eve n think about joining them? ). And unlike the other meals there was nothing vegetarian. But i didnt realise it at all. I was hungry bored of a 1.5 hour presentation and standing in a long queue and the first thing i pick up looked like something intersting. Well as it turned out later when nishant (Lolo as he is known in ahmedabad) that it had HAM.

Yeah alright, i really didnt care then. Ate the rest of it as now it was too late to cook. I would have to walk 20 minutes back to the dorm and i was too hungry. And to be frank the HAM DID TASTE GOOD.

Now htis brings me to this question. WHY AM I A VEGETARIAN?

Well being born in a conservative hindu brahmin family that to form the state of gujarat (where 85% are veggies) and in india most brahmins (being the relegious caste) are forbidden to eat meat. So all my life een thinking about eating meat was ruled out. Though i am not religious my self, bordering somewhere between an atheist and agnostic, i really dont care whether by eating meat i go to hell (in any case my other deeds make it highly improbable i will ever go to heaven).

Neither am i an animal lover that i believe it is bad to kill animals for food. (to be frank i hate animals, dont really care about how they are illtreated. I don even bother about the plight of hungry children in India in my own city) So that really shows i am not those caring guys who loves animals so would not be able to see them being butchered.

Again all these years i kept convincing myself that meat is high protein and complex carbohydrates. Bad for your health. Bad for digestion, clogs your arteries and i would have a big paunch when i am 30 and heart attack when i am 40. But that doesnt even mean that i eat healthy the rest of the time.

So then why am i vegetarian?

I guess it is just the way of life and there is some kind of inertia to cross over. Now here though i cook daily (with mixed results), but when i am travelling it is extremely difficult to find somehting vegetarian. Even Burger king and McDonalds which provide sheap stuff dont have a lot of veg food.

So for me i just go searching from place to place and try to fill my stomach. I dont even enjoy a meal.

Yeah it is at these times i feel it is another thing that i need to let go of. Or should i ?

I think my mother has stopped reading my blog and my dad doesnt know how to surf the net. But i guess if they read this they sure would be upset.

YEAH BUT I GUESS ATLEAST IN THE SHORT TERM HORIZON I AM GONNA REMAIN A VEGETARIAN. I think the health argument is still holding me on.

Some one pass me the bland boiled vegetables and orange juice please.

6 comments:

JC said...

Just had to say, for the first time in your blog I read something that upsets me very much, that is, you saying you hate animals...to be honest, that sounds extremely stupid, I want to think that you didn't mean it that way...anyway...

Nirav Kanodra said...

I agree it is stupid. I was just writing what came to my mind. Anyways words once said dont go back. It is a real foot in the mouth statement. Dont want to act further stupid by justifying my error or by making any excuses

Anonymous said...

Yay.. Welcome dil..*err*..Nirav to the dark side. Its not that bad actually. I used to be one myself...a veggie that is.Its a load of fun actually.
Knew you were of a adventurous type. Just think of it as a new adventure .. of the culianary kind.

Anonymous said...

liked your honesty when u spoke your mind when u said that u dont like animals or u dont care about the poor kids in your own city...

anyway...been reading your blog for sometime...good read

...dabe

karan Cheema said...

Hey,
Nice posts.
I just read someone's comment that they were *upset* because you hate animals.(the first comment)
I love LOVEE animals.
BUt I dont think there is anything *STUPID* in telling what you actually feel. writing blog is about expressing your true feelings, so If you dont like something or you dont care, the you dont "PERIOD".
Stupid is when you pretend to like it even if you dont in reality.
So anyways nice post. I dont know if you are still vegetarian or not, but trust me meat is not unhealthy :). Proteins are good for your health.

Nirav Kanodra said...

@Here comes the Sun

I guess I am still vegetarian, nearly 2.5 years after that event, and well I still dont know why?

Proteins or no proteins, I have no Idea.
I like Scott Adams idea of vegetarianism (If you looked at fruits you do salivate naturally, unlikely if you look at a cow or a pig, unless it is dead and cooked)

May be may be not, but vegetarianism it is