WHO DECIDES WHAT SHOULD BE ON AN INDIAN’S PLATE? AT THE SAME TIME, SHOULDN’T WE ALSO TAKE A HARD LOOK AT WHAT WE ARE CONSCIOUSLY PILING IT UP WITH?
SONAL // I am against animal killing – at any time, for any reason. And I’m okay with any action taken as long as it is for animal rights. At the same time, the way we are a multi-religious country, I don’t see how we can give respect to a particular religion by banning meat. Until some time ago, it was only the chickens and the goats that were slaughtered. Now we have the foie gras as well, an extremely cruel way to get special meat. It is so cruel that it has been banned in many countries in Europe. But in India, such things happen on a superficial level, and I am disappointed that it is not taken up by chefs, food critics and food writers, either.
SONAL // I am against animal killing – at any time, for any reason. And I’m okay with any action taken as long as it is for animal rights. At the same time, the way we are a multi-religious country, I don’t see how we can give respect to a particular religion by banning meat. Until some time ago, it was only the chickens and the goats that were slaughtered. Now we have the foie gras as well, an extremely cruel way to get special meat. It is so cruel that it has been banned in many countries in Europe. But in India, such things happen on a superficial level, and I am disappointed that it is not taken up by chefs, food critics and food writers, either.
What you can see, sells. It will make a lot of sense to make vegetarian cuisine more popular and have food critics review vegetarian cuisine. The current scenario is most of them can’t look beyond a non-vegetarian spread and half-heartedly dedicate a paragraph in the end of their story merely mentioning vegetarian dishes. It was heartening to see MasterChef India 4 go all-veg.
Our eating habits are a matter of conditioning. We do not eat what we eat because of what we have been taught in books. It comes from culture, conditioning and convenience. We think culture can never be bad. But we forget it was the same culture that observed the practice of sati, which was abolished. So, cultures can have misconstructs. We should be aware of the not-so-right practices. We are also conditioned into eating certain foods. One who has been fed on milk and eggs by his mother can’t say his mother was wrong with her food choices. Then there is convenience, the convenience of maintaining good relations. A vegetarian thinks, “I will never ask a non-vegetarian person to stop eating because he isn’t harming my family.”
We need to create more awareness about opting for vegetarian food, and how giving up meat long-term, or for a while isn’t such a bad thing. There needs to awareness about why such a resolution of banning meat for a few days isn’t bad at all! People need to be told about the implications of some abattoirs being told to shut down for a few days. They need to be told the biological and environmental benefits of such a move. Not killing animals for eating for even a day will give environmental relief to resources such as air and water, which are already under stress from slaughterhouses working overtime.
Instead of giving it religious tones, however, the government should consider giving it a universal appeal and colour. We can remain secular about it, but talk about the environmental and health issues. Meat consumption is definitely a health hazard. So why not brace up and start making the public aware about it, and let out bodies take a rest from it for a few days at least. I also believe someone has to speak for animals that can’t speak for themselves. I feel if you have the capacity in your to heart to listen to the wails and cries of animals and stand the bloodshed that goes on to satisfy your taste buds, go ahead and do that. But please don’t give me the argument about fruits and vegetables feeling the same pain, too. A cabbage does not run out on the road while you are trying to chop it. But a goat will. Alas, the media and politicians are ready to cash in on any dissent about it.
I love going to Mahatma Gandhi when it comes to vegetarianism. He advocated vegetarianism on compassionate grounds. Not eating meat is compassion. Animals are not in power; it is we human beings who are much more powerful than animals. Any community that has been exploited has never been able to fight for its rights without active help from the powerful lobby. Feminism needs men to fight for equal rights, just as blacks were joined by white people when it came to racism. So why do we expect the animal right movement to go the opposite way? Respecting a life is a bigger cause than respecting food choices. You should remember that the origin of eating meat lies in torture and pain and death, which could have been avoided.
NABRINA SEN // Scene 1: Judging people I looked at this woman with a thin moustache, with shock and surprise as every muscle on her face reflect hatred for me, as she uttered these words to the property dealer with an unusually big nose: “Bengalis – these people eat fish. I need “acche” (good) tenants for my house.” It was the first time I came across a person with hate and I understood I am a part of the “these people” category for a woman who neither consumes goat meat with pleasure, nor enjoys the taste of fish. All night I felt, just like a coloured man in the US may feel if he was addressed as nigger or an Indian is addressed as native. It was also the first time I, a Bengali from north Kolkata, came across the first food thug from Patparganj.
Scene 2: The dead eater I have always enjoyed food. Born in North Kolkata, like every Bengali I grew up in a neighbourhood where the men went to the market with an additional plastic tholi (shopping bag). The plastic bag was used for purchasing the fish of the day. Stories about getting your hands on the best catch were exchanged over relishing maacher jhol (fish curry): “And so fresh was the fish that it looked alive” or, “Just the colour of its blood, it was beautiful” and so on.
For us kids, it meant great taste. Soon, I was old enough to go to market and understand the freshness of the fish by the colour of its eyes. And this is how I became a part of “these people” category, and would enjoy eating the dead for the rest of my life.
Scene 3: His grandmother and mine She was an old woman whose ears and eyes missed nothing. Eighty years old, wearing a white sari, she would climb the stairs of our fourthfloor house with ease. She would recite Bhagvad Gita and go to the thakurghar (the room dedicated for offering pooja). She was a vegetarian but could cook the best non-vegetarian for the entire family. I would often wonder how she cooked so perfectly without even tasting the fish or chicken. And I never saw hatred in her eyes, which the landlady from Patparganj showed for my people who love the taste of animal meat or fish.
Scene 4: Sin-free Shanti is a “sacred cow”. She has strong horns and is regarded by many two-legged as mother. Every day, she is visited by her owner, who takes Gopal away from her. Gopal is her calf, only a few days old, but can never get his fill of milk, which is rightfully his. Shanti’s milk is taken by his owner Lal Singh, and after getting mixed with enough water and god knows what else, who delivers the milk to our Patparganj landlady, who has a headache unless she drinks a cup of milk with her breakfast. After breakfast, she goes to buy fresh vegetables for her vegetarian lunch, which she feels is sin-free because she never takes a life by eating and never hurts anyone’s kid.
Scene 6: The great hunger Times are changing. We are now a great big country, an emerging economy, facing hungry mouths, and a successful mission to Mars. Lakhs of people sleep on footpaths on an empty stomach. Innumerable Indians don’t have access to safe drinking water. Farmers are committing suicide. So many kids get to work before they are even 10 years old. What gives anyone the right to decide what they will eat? Especially the “fresh vegetable” eaters? Do you know the fresh raw apple you bite into can feel you are chewing it alive?