SHOULD WE REALLY ‘HUG THE COW’! - On vegetarianism. Review on Choosing Health food

No, this isn’t meant to be a ridiculous rumpus over ‘save the holy cow’; rather this is a serious and profound discussion on vegetarianism. Vegetarianism is one of the most fashionable ‘fads’(among omnivores) around for quite some time now. And it’s a topic which deserves a serious, no-holds-barred debate among MSians. If Sanjoy and Paromita triggered the avalanche on aphrodisiacs(the Niagra on Viagra…hehe.howzzat!), this time the credits roll out to the inimitable Shyam Nambiyar. We also discussed at length what would be the ideal symbols for veggiesm and non-veggiesm…and reached the consensus that ‘Hugging a Cow’ would be an ideal symbol for vegetarianism. Shyam later came up with another brilliant suggestion – that hugging a few chics could be a perfect symbol for non-vegetarianism. I am not very clear in my mind as to what type of ‘chics’ Shyam intends to hug…(particularly after his take on Axe!)

Anyway….lets shift our focus back to vegetarianism. Let me clarify at the outset that this review deals only with those vegetarians who renounce non vegetarian food for a variety of reasons. Religious vegetarianism is beyond the scope of this review, and therefore not discussed at all. According to Wikipedia, Vegetarianism(as opposed to Herbivorous for plant-eating, non-human animals) is the practice of not consuming meat, with or without the use of other animal derivatives, such as dairy products or eggs. If you thought that that was the end of the definition, there’s more to it. There are four kinds of vegetarians – Lacto vegetarians(who consume milk), Ovo vegetarians(who eat eggs chupke se), Lacto-ovo vegetarians(who relish milk-n-eggs) and Vegans(pure diehard ghaas-phoos-etarians who abhor milk-n-eggs too) Now, what kind are you?

Adolf Hitler was one strict vegetarian between 1931 & 1945….even as his Nazi lieutenants fried human brains in his backyard upon his implicit instructions. So was Leonardo da Vinci(who is widely believed to have exhumed corpses in the dead of the night to study human anatomy). Albert Einstein(of the Eggs= Milk x Cheese2 fame) and Leo Tolstoy too were vegetarians. The largest land mammal – the elephant, too is a vegetarian.oops I mean an herbivore. Not the *flyingelephant *of course, who I am sure, is as omnivorous as one can possibly be!(Like me.)

Well.‘Hugging the cow’ is a fine idea….but the question is …Which end of the cow can you safely hug without either being punctured nastily or smeared lavishly with dung?I mean should a perfectly sane non veggie call it quits one fine morning for no reason and embrace vegetarianism? Is there really any rationale or justification behind chucking a plateful of juicy chicken tikkas and hyderabadi kebabs out of the window in favour of a bland diet of lettuce, brinjals and cauliflower only? Has strict vegetarianism been proved to be beneficial beyond question?

In 1999, a large scientific study in Europe found that the mortality ratio was the lowest in fish eaters(0.82) followed by vegetarians(0.84) and occasional meat eaters(0.84) and which was then followed by regular meat eaters(1.0) and vegans(1.0)! Occasional non veggies were as good as vegetarians in terms of life expectancy. So, health and nutrition can not be a justification.

What else…new found spirituality? As suddenly discovered by Richard Gere, Brad Pitt, David Duchovny and Pamela Anderson(yes…the same Baywatch ‘VIP’ whose fame is larger than her….er….frame…and who was chased by a mad, testosterone charged Borat not so long ago!)? It is kind of fashionable to turn a veggie in the West. Maybe…but for us Indians, this too is not a useful ploy. As such, even in staunch non veggie households, we have ‘somvaars’, ‘mangalvaars’ and God knows how many other ‘vrats’ and ‘vaars’ when not only nonveg food but even seemingly innocuous ‘nonveg bedroom acts’ are also strictly forbidden, much to the chagrin of poor menfolk! So, at best, we are occasional non vegetarians only. And it really doesn’t make sense for us ‘occasional’ non vegetarians to renounce this little gastronomic pleasure in life!

Saving money? – Eeeeeek…….what a preposterous thought! Would someone, in his or her rational senses, even think of detaching him/herself from a lovely bowl of mutton korma(or 'karma'.eh?) or a lavish helping of murg makhaani just to save money? Alas…Wikipedia thinks so! It even has a term of this unfortunate malady – economic vegetarianism.

Jokes apart, it is true that economic compulsions enforce a vegetarian diet, which is far more affordable than meat, fish or eggs. In our great nation of over a billion mouths, many still can’t afford two square meals a day, let alone a non veg diet. Many women and children in rural India and urban slums go to sleep hungry just because the men squander away their earnings on desi liqueur and teen patti(a form of gambling with cards). It’s the same society where hopeless farmers commit suicide because they cannot support their families and are too proud to see their illiterate womenfolk resort to prostitution to feed their hungry children. Talking of vegetarianism…quite fashioanble indeed.* *Yes… the nation is shining surely…and the shine does reflect brilliantly from the stinking muck in the gutters of our metropolitan underbelly.

Okay.okay…don’t be morose. We all are too sensible to shed faltoo crocodile tears. Lets not deviate from our topic….yes…vegetarianism.

So.lets sum up the pros and cons of veggism.

Pros – Veggism reserves a place in heaven for its followers. Veggism is supposed to be fashionable and promptly pushes you up page 3. Veggism saves money.

Cons – Won’t it be really nice if YOU come up with YOUR views…? Well…the comments section is all yours…….

And thanks as always for reading my stuff.

© Sudipto Chakravarty 2006