My Experiments with Life

So, how is my vegan wagon of almost a month? This is a sequel to my last post . I have an enthusiastic partner to try the vegan way, and that is my husband. Any initiative or undertaking is definitely much more sustainable when you have a partner who is equally enthusiastic and like-minded. Guess that's behind the "gym buddy" concept, huh? That apart, our Vegan lifestyle changes: We have decided to be domestic vegans. That is, no dairy consumption at home but we might relax this when socializing, if need be. Because, we don't want to create a fuss when we dine out with friends if there is no vegan food available. Being vegetarians already, when we dine out with friends, the places that don't have vegetarian choices are automatically out of question. If we place tighter constraints, it would be unfair to the people we go out with, and eventually going out might not be fun anymore with us. Man is a social animal, ain't he? We don't buy dairy milk anymore. It...

Last week I came across an article on milk, called the milk letter , written by a doctor, Robert M. Kradjian. This well written article tries to claim why cow's milk is not at all necessary for humans, and also about the ill effects of consuming dairy milk. The article is long, but worth a read. Apart from the health reasons and justifications, I was more struck by the ethical part of it. A cow's milk is for its calf, as much a human mother's milk is for her baby. How about depriving a baby of his/her mother's milk and using that milk to feed kittens and puppies? Milk has been an important part of the diet all over the world for a long time. I heard some African tribes do not consume milk. In India, or rather in India-of-the-olden-days, cattle were treated as a part of the family. While bulls worked in the agricultural fields, cows gave milk, after the calves had their share. Cows were revered as "Gomatha" or the 'mother cow'. The idea was that, after ...

It was in 2000 that I decided to give up non vegetarian food. What triggered that decision, I don’t remember too well. I was 15 then. I think, I wanted to test my determination to give up something and holding on to the resolution. Once decided, never have I cheated on my resolution, even in my thoughts. I mean I was never even tempted to think of going back. I had made a commitment and it was very important to me to honor commitments, be it to self or to others. Oh yeah, there was my mom trying to convert me back to a non vegetarian and she had to give up after some 2-3 years seeing my tenacity. And, what now? After 7 years of abstinence? I feel I have become too Sathvic. At times I feel we do need some amount of aggressiveness, and I could definitely have more helpings of it. I have a calm and gathered mind, definitely. But is that enough? Don’t you need a little bit of hot-bloodedness? And I have a thought/whim/impression/notion that I have become too sathvic because of my vegetaria...