They say “ We eat to live and more importantly live to eat”. With this sentiment and given the fact that people are nowadays getting really fuzzy about the food they eat , it is a ‘food for thought’ that ‘Eating’ is much more than just a meager metabolic process. The kind of food that one eats is in fact an expression of one’s personality, after all “ You are what you eat”.
And if you talk about the variety of eating habits and food patterns , I’ll just say the menu has no boundaries. Take a look at the living species and their motley of eating habits , it is a full-wide spectrum , there are herbivore , carnivore ,omnivore amongst animals to vegetarian , eggitarian , non vegetarian amongst the ‘social animals’.
The point here is, to each his own. Everyone has their own tastes and they pamper their taste buds in fine style. Ever tried to show a calorie chart to a ‘Junk Food’ lover , he is most likely to turn a blind eye . Or try telling the benefits of green vegetables to a ‘chicken –maniac’, it will fall on deaf ears. Or still worse offer a veggie a full chicken course , he is sure to chicken out from the table.
I am the latter type , a self proclaimed ‘ pure vegetarian’ ,and have always felt nauseated by even the thought of flesh making way into my mouth. I personally , have a psychological problem with ‘ food of flesh’ , as it paints a picture of blood , slaughter and wails of the ‘poor species’ in my mind. Those who defend it quoting ‘Law of Evolution – Survival of the fittest’ , I feel like telling them it is not a jungle out here but a civil society. And Man being the torchbearer of this society, should play the role of protector not predator of the weaker species.
My eating habit is both a personal choice as well as what I inherited from my family’s eating habit. I was on numerous occasions, lured by friends and relatives who eat non-veg , to ‘try it once’. And My argument used to be a little ‘play on words’. I used to say , you believe in ‘Once’ as in ‘try it once’ , but I believe in ‘Once’ as in “ Once a vegetarian , always a vegetarian” , and we should respect each others beliefs. That used to be pretty much, end of the story.
23 years of my life , I was a proud ‘veggie’ until that ominous day came along . 02/07 (2010) was to me , what 09/11(2001) was to America. Like the case with Americans, even I had least seen it coming and it shook the foundation of my life. Me and My friends were waiting for our order, in our most preferred Chinese restaurant, a plate of Veg wanton for me and a plate of Non- veg Momos for my companions. And as the dishes were served , I did not bother about verifying the order. After all , it was not my first time there ,and to top that I was as hungry as a bear coming out of hibernation. So, I picked up a fork and 'fished' towards the first piece in my plate. The taste was different than usual ,it was rather tasteless and veg- stuffing seemed too little for a Veg Wanton. But in the heat of the hungry moment , my senses were off-duty. So, one after another I gorged 3 more pieces of what to me 'apparently' were veg wanton.
Seconds later, my friend took one piece from my dish , and much like a wine-taster tells of wine he blurted out to me that I was having chicken. And that was it , I felt like my heart has fallen into my shoes. What planes did to Twin towers , those plates did to me. I, in my fit of rage, threatened to bloody sue the restaurant for putting me through this hell, but then I thought the damage has been done and it wont bring back what I had lost. However , my fit of rage did bring back something else , my Veg wanton , this time for real .
I then put this ‘Chickengate’ behind me. I put up a brave face not to spoil the evening for my friends. I even saw the funny side in all this, and thought of doing a ‘Maddy’( R.Madhavan in the movie ‘RHTDM’ finds himself in a similar situation , where he being a Brahmin reluctantly eats chicken on a date , and then pukes it to redeem himself). I decided not to redeem myself rather leave this as a ‘bitter experience’ that would constantly remind me not to rise to the bait next time.
At the end of it , amongst all the things that define this ‘unsavory’ event , like mistake , misfortune , destiny , my personal favorite is ‘ loss of veg-virginity’.
