When meat becomes ‘cool’

I was visiting Mint last weekend. It was a fun weekend on campus and I was having a great time, but anyway, that is not what this post is about. Let me get to the point. Mint and I walked to the food stalls they have on campus for a late lunch. We invariably bump into other students every time we are there, so I expected to see a bunch of his classmates there, and I was right. We greeted them, took the adjacent table and ordered our meal. Conversations were light. The service was fast, and within no time, I had my order placed in front of me. As soon as I started eating, Mint’s classmate who sat across us, peeped into my plate and asked me, “Are you a vegetarian?” The note of alarm in his voice told me where this was headed. Sigh. Yes, I told him, hoping it ended there. But of course, it didn’t. He scoffed, turned to look at his batchmate, and asked him, “Yeh vegetarian log khate kya hai? Sirf paneer? Onions and tomatoes?”. It translates to – What do these vegetarian people eat? Just paneer, onions and tomatoes?. It made me see red, but considering he was Mint’s classmate, I could not give a very knee jerk reaction to his remark. So I gritted my teeth, smiled at him and said yes, paneer, onions and tomatoes are really all that we eat, you know. I am not sure he understood sarcasm. I hope he did. Either way, I felt annoyance surging inside me.

I have been a meat eater for most of my life. I was never too fond of red meat, but chicken was a regular. So was fish. Most of my friends are meat eaters too. There were a few who ate only vegetarian meals, and we always tried to accommodate each other. But at times, the vegetarians displayed the ‘I am holier than thou’ attitude and it would get on my nerves. You’ve made a choice, I have made a choice, let’s just suit ourselves. Why exert moral superiority? In all honesty though, those instances were few and far in between. I think most of my vegetarian friends knew how to mind their own business.

And then I was put onto the other side of the fence. While walking on the street one day, I happened to see a goat being slaughtered. I froze. It was barbaric. I couldn’t get the sight out of my mind. But more than that, what I couldn’t shake out of my senses were the cries I heard. It affected me at a very deep level. I continued eating meat for a while after that, but each time I ate it, I was left feeling uneasy and uncomfortable. So I decided to quit. What is the point in eating if I no longer enjoy it?

Ever since I turned a vegetarian, I’ve been dealing with a number of inconveniences. Mint, is a hardcore meat eater, and so we can’t share meals when we go to restaurants, without either of us having to compromise. For him, a veggie meal is a compromise. For me, a compromise means sharing a non vegetarian meal with him, in which I flick of all visible pieces of meat. Yes, I am not rigid like that. Other inconveniences include scrambling for food when no vegetarian option is available. This, I must say does not happen in India. But I have dealt with such scenarios numerous time while living in the West. Anyway, all these are the consequences of the choice I have made, and of course, I can’t blame anybody else.

We move around in a circle in which almost everybody is a non-vegetarian. Each time we are a part of a group dinner, people order a variety of appetizers containing meat, and a sole vegetarian starter for me. What gets my goat is that people keep pouncing on my limited mushrooms while enjoying their chicken alongside. Heck, that leaves me with nothing to eat! Please order a veggie starter for yourself if you want one. But most people think it is a waste to order anything vegetarian, and at the same time, when it is lying in front of them, they consider it their birth right to eat it, without thinking of the sole vegetarian there.

When people ask me if I am a vegetarian, I am almost embarrassed to say ‘Yes’. I spent some time thinking about it. I never felt apologetic for eating meat. Why do I feel embarrassed for not eating it? And then I realised, it is because of remarks from people like Mint’s batch mate. They make the vegetarians seem like a bunch of boring, uninteresting people who’ve never experienced the good things in life. Also, I suppose we operate under the premise that vegetarians are conservative individuals. Oh you are bound by religious shackles that prevent you from eating meat? You are not broad minded enough to not care? That makes you uncool! The meat eaters are supposed to be large minded liberalists who get to explore contemporary culinary delights, while we are deprived of the good things. And I think it is this underlying belief that makes it hard for me to declare my vegetarian status. Perhaps subconsciously, I do not want to be disassociated from the seemingly ‘cool’ crowd. If only I, (and the rest of us) realised these are only choices, and no one choice is better than the other.