Why Veganism?

Why Veganism?

I don’t know where to start, But I am Bengali by birth. And from a Bengali family where we love and celebrate eating, once my father, and I was coming to home. We got around 25-30 (Cant remember the exact number) Rosogolla for some relatives who have come to the house, and we stopped at a Calvert to taste the Rosogolla. We reached home with only 4–6 pieces of Rosogolla.

In my college when we used to go to the shops outside college for lunch, I used to ask what day it is, irrespective of the reply I would say “accha, today is may non-veg day”. Because in our culture, Some people only eat veg some days of the week, Most of the time, it’s for religious or sectarian reasons. And some people only follow it when they are in the house. Why veganism?

Vegetarianism never made sense to me. Please read this with an open mind. Maybe it is because of how have seen vegetarians treat their Vegetarianism, like they can eat non veg outside and not inside. Some head of the family does not like non veg inside the house or sometime little more lighter inside the kitchen. Sometimes they eat eggs and try to include egg in Vegetarianism. Also, possibly just they are born with it and never feel it or asked questions about cruelty and what not. In addition, some vegetable and Lentils become non veg. I don’t understand how, like masoor dal is non-veg, onion and garlic is non veg. Another very funny/ not so funny thing happen is some of the puja’s Prosad is having meat cooked without onion and garlic, Which is called “Vegetarian meat”. Potentially, that is why sometimes vegetarians needs a pure tag with them to be vegetarian”.

Now I will tell you the story, how I became vegan overnight from a hardcore non vegetarian.

So when the Covid-19 lockdown stated, The local markets used to be completely shut. And the local free-ranging / stay dogs (I don’t like the term street dog) use to have food from there only, they became kind of starved. I used to have online classes back then. So I only had the time in the night to help. And I also liked the time that it use to be silent and almost no people around. My whole childhood my father use to have lots of pets also dogs, we had three dog 1 by 1. Now, I don’t like the idea of pets. Will talk about it some other day. So yeah I like animals I let them be, and I used to feed biscuits which are made for humans and not for them is not ideal at all.

So yeah, one fine day, one of the dogs was trying to play and eat, or I don’t know what it was doing. Jumped on the cage where chicken were kept for selling meat. My brain clicked, I am going so out of my way to feed one, but causally eating another. That night I decided I would stop eating meat and some time after I got to know that how cruel dairy is. so dairy as well. I did not know at that time if it is called, and what I would eat, later I got to know it is called veganism.

In my experience, most of the non-vegetarian and vegetarians laugh at this incident/story, but most vegan get it where I am coming from. That is how it is.