Becoming vegetarian

Asia
May 23rd 2010

Published: May 23rd 2010

Hey all!

Haven't written much while I was in India, true. Or at all. Not a lot of e-mails as well.
I guess it's because the socializing thing in India is too satisfying in terms of sharing your experiences with other people. When you do write you either write to yourself or write other stuff.
However, I'm in Pokhara, Nepal now since my Indi visa is finished and I do need two months chill out for some reason, and since my Dutch-Soft-Landing-Companion has just left this morning to the Anaporna, I guess I am not too socializing now to write you a few lines.
So... What have I done ever since China?
Well, 8 more days in Lao (Vang Vieng and Vientiane mainly, but a night in Luang Prabang was also included), 28 hours in Bangkok (Met BKK David again), and almost 3 months in India (almost is because of the visa issue to arrival 3 days. Annoying those Indians with their visa, aren't they?)

However, I'm not even gonna try to write about my experiences here because I'm lack of the patience it takes to do so, but I do wanna write about me becoming a vegetarian, just because I think of it as one of the key points of my journey so far.

Ever since I can remember I have always loved animals. Of course, dogs were always my favourite, but I also grew some parrots, chicks, turtles and fish, fed cats, played with snails and observed the fascinating lives of beetles and ants. However, I believed that eating meat is important and more than that - delicious. Watching many well functioning vegetarians around me only made me say every once in a while "If I was a stronger person I would also be a vegi" and then look away and move on to the next steakhouse.

I did read those prospects about what the animals go through to staisfy our hunger, but it was enough for me not to weat fur-coats in order to live in peace with myself as an animal lover and an animal right believer.

However, over the years my menu grew smaller and smaller, since I have started to realise specific things about specific animals. For example:
A friend of my family once told me how she cannot eat pork ever since she was in this house that grew a pig as pet and she watched how emotionally intelligent this animal is ("Like a dog" were her exact words). Ever since - Whenever I was served pork I was chewing it thinking about my own doggie, so I just stopped eating pork, at least when I knew about it.
Unnecessary to state that to start with I have never eaten and were never willing to try any stuff that French people and Asians consider eatable like frogs, rabbits, snails, bugs, snakes, turtles, not to mention dogs and cats that for me that would be canibalism.

Then I tried to stop lambs, Chicks, villes and all baby animals when it was mentioned in the menu, since they are really cute (I have grown chicks, to remind you, and they were so sweet, yellow and soft, running around my feet, trying to fly and twitting with cute sounds. How could I ever eat this lovely creatures. Well, not until it grows up, anyway), so I could only order specific things containing meat - mainly cows, fish and chicken who I believed to be grown up.

Then, during my journey, the list grew even shorter and shorter - The innumerable plates of shrimps and other sea creatures I have had in Vietnam have caused me severe skin problems and in Laos, well, I have seen Turkeys mourning over a dead member-turkey, crying out loud, sheltering him with their wings and trying to lift his (or its, if you insist) head with their bits and I realised - Hey, Turkies have feelings! They are intelligent! They fucking know what death means. They have all these staged that we do: Denial, comapssion, friendship, crying, sadness, horror! For fucks-sakes, they are NOT just walking shawarmas! So, no more shawarma for me, yes?

When I saw some specific animal name in a menu (like "Bird" for example) I didn't eat it because it was to visual for me (a tiny bird is flying in the sky), and so and so on.

See, there's the reason why us, delicate westerners always come up with generaizing names like "beef" instead of "dead cow meat" and "chicken" instead of "hens and roosters". We just deny those creatures of their souls. Just like dead tree will always be wood to us. We are so sensitive. We know that killing is bad and we do feel sorry for the animals, so we don't like to imagine the once-living creature laying on our plate. We don't like to hunt. We came up with all these systems that psychologically grant us with the distance we need from the image of Bamby's mom being shot to death by the hunter - Some special people grow the animals in captivity terms just for killing them later so we can purchase their pink blod frozen non-animal-lookalike part in a supermarket and feel o.k. with that. We've all been there, right? The Asians just don't lie to themselves as much so they have the same word for cow and cow-meat..

Well, I always knew it was a lot like feeling wrong about shooting the bad people. You come up with so many other systems to do that without having to watch: bombs, long-distance missles, concentration camps ran and cleaned by "lower" people. I just didn't wanna think about it too much because most people around me were doing that. Society considers it right to eat meat, then so do I. Like anything else society tells me it is o.k. or wrong to do and spares me the hassle of having to think of it myself.

After 3 weeks in Ko Pangan, some time at the beginning of my trip, I have met this nice guy Will and spent half a day with him.
He was a strict vegetarian and after I told him I do love animals but I've never really been vegi he has asked me why would I wanna eat my friends.
"Good question" I thought, but since I hadn't really any good answer I just said "Well, vegetables are'nt delicious."
"That depends on the cook." Said Will and took me to this great vegi restaurant Maykai Dee. Greatest curries I've had in my life, I must say, and no animal has suffered for them.

Then Will sat and explained to me about how vegetarianism is good not only for the animals but also for the planet and even for me. Well, you save water, you are less fat and more healthy because most of the cholestroll comes from meat and so much more.

Going deeper into Ayurveda these days I know that there are many other reasons to stop causing suffer and grief to other creatures, but most of you won't find them solid enough because you're more into western science and less into Dharma and stuff, so I will leave those arguments for now and then you might not think I have flipped and you'll be less bored.

However, back then I have tried it for a few weeks, but like - 2 days veg 1 day non veg and so, because I crossed the border to Cambodia and most restaurants I went into just didn't have Tofu and their veg curries were pale comparing to the Thai and Indian ones. I also didn't know much about nutrition so I started feeling weaker and got some annoying body-illnesses which I naturally blamed on vegism. Plus, I was craving for some meat.

I remember trying one or two more times but it never lasted since I wasn't really ready to give up meat, which is a big part of western joys of life.

However, then, three months ago I got to India. Naturally, in order to give respect to the hosting culture (Hindu) I was trying to eat less meat. Plus, Indi menu is vegi based and always was so, so the vegi food here is sooo delicious and nutritious that you don't really miss meat a lot. Every once in a while I did have some beef or chicken in an international restaurant or a Muslim Dhaba (and no, they did NOT piss in my plate, if this is what you were thinking, even though that would be a good reason to give up meat).

However, then, three weeks in Pushkar (You know how I become when I like a place) I was actually forced vegitarianism since it's a holly Hindu place and there's no meat, by law, I have been craving a Schnitzel and other dead animal products. Whenever I have mentioned it to Odelia, the woman that runs the Blue Star organic Israeli restaurant she said stuff like "Have you tried our Shakshuka/Dal/Curry? It's really good." So much wisdom in one person. It was annoying for me back then, just so you'll know.

One day I wqas sitting with her in the organic farm itself and she told me "Us westerners, we're so conceded that we believe that the moral code 'Thy shall not kill' is limited to humans only and it's o.k. that an animal will be killed for our supreme selves. So we tell ourselves that we need the nutritious value of meat but the truth is that we eat and we eat and most people are still anemic. Being in India for so long I stopped eating meat and the last time I checked, I think for the first time in my life I wasn't anemic at all. If you eat well you don't really need to eat animals."

I have had some chicken eventually, but it wasn't as great as I remembered, so I kept trying to avoid meat for as much as my patience would allow me even in Delhi and other places that serve meat. Then in Rishikesh I have started with the Yoga and all of a sudden, naturally it happened - I realize I feel so much better not eating meat, and that I don't really need it, so I did the biggest thing I could do to "sign" my decision: I declared it on Facebook.

It all happened so naturally. Having this knowledge for years didn't push the final trigger. Yoga did. India did. It's just like one day you're able to do the Bridge-stand after a month of trying as hard as you can - it happens one day - naturally, with one breath your body lifts up. No effort. Because you're ready. You do have to work on yourself before to prepare your lungs. I have tried it, I did have compassion in my heart, but I was unsuccessful in practicing vegi life-style. But like the bridge-stand, when you finally make it - It's not even hard. And you feel so good about yourself!

So good and so guiltfree. No unnecessary grief is caused by you to any other creature. No unnecessary fat goes into your body (unless you're deep into junkfood and sweets). You actually realise that it is unnecessary, that it's better and possible to live like that. That "we are predators and we have to eat meat" is a false belief based on an industrial lie and it always has been. Enough of those are so dominant in our lives and that's the most harmful one. We are being educated to believe that killing is necessary for our lives to exist. Is that a happy way of being? Us vegis, that's one lie that our mind and body are free of and we are happy with it.

Looking at cute cows on the roads as I travel I no longer feel guilty, I no longer have to limit my vision of cows and tell myself they're dumb animals. They are living creatures with souls. The little chicken running around with their babies - They are good mommas, aren't they? Good mothers to those cute chicks. Why should they suffer if there's no actual need to eat them? And fish? Well, yes, they live their lives and only suffer at the last few seconds, but actually they don't need to suffer at all, because we DON'T have to eat them.

There are two main theories: The one that claims we have to eat meat and the one that says that the human body is not meant for digesting meat and that it is actually bad for you - for your health, figure, not to mention mind. Personally I believe the second method. You see, I have met so many vegetarians so it has to be possible. You do have to get your protein, see, but it's so easy: chick-pees, Tofu and curd contain it along with a lot of other stuff.

Cats have to fish and hunt mice and birds. They do it out of instinct. This is how their body's built. Cows eat grass. We can do both so we can choose. That is our privilege.

Little kids chase each other around all happy and excited as they play in the play in the streets. Chicks are running around following their mommas and twitting in the garden. Cows go up the hill, eating grass and mooing to themselves, little piggies run after their mommas. So many lives are going on around us other than our own. Why should they stop when it's not necessary? Why should I capture a chicken and deny it from natural life-joy if I there's not any actual reason for doing that?

If I have the choice of not hurting a living creature - I will take it.

However, have a happy day and as they say - take a minute to think about it.

Love,
Noga

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