The Hindu : Arts / Magazine : My Take - Love thy animals. But not in thy burger…
INDU BALACHANDRAN on the endless possibilities on November 25, a day of celebration for vegetarians.
There's a day in November when a lot of animals and birds may rest easier: November 25th is International Meatless Day.
Apparently,
it's the day when environmentalists and animal rights activists hope
that more people will discover the merits of vegetarian food — eating
kidney beans rather than kidney stroganoff, trying out yam rather than
ham, and sharing recipes involving the flesh of a fruit rather than the
flesh of a beast.
Meatless Day will convince people
everywhere to love animals and birds more — but not inside their
burgers, sandwiches, rolls, curries, pies…(most definitely not
blackbirds, four and twenty of them, baked in a pie.)
As
a die-hard vegetarian, I am hoping this is not an excuse for
supermarkets to push up the price of our already pricey vegetables that
day. As for die-hard non-vegetarians, I suspect some will still cheat on
that day, and interpret meat-less day as less-meat day, and slyly chomp
on a fish finger or two for sustenance.
But somebody
should alert Lady Gaga that she can't do a repeat of her sensational
outfit at last year's MTV Video Awards, where she wore an entire dress
made up of raw meat. Including her purse. (Was it made out of a sow's
ear, I wonder…). She's one celebrity PETA (People for Ethical Treatment
of Animals) will never go running after, as their ads feature famous
stars dressed only in green clothes. Greens clothes actually. PETA
models often pose in amazing garments made solely out of spinach leaves,
lettuce leaves and cabbage leaves, with this catchy headline: “Let
Vegetarianism Grow On You”. It might happen slowly, but you'll surely
turn vegetarian some day, they promise…
So we can
look forward to lots of information by vegetarian activists on the high
protein content of nuts, the super-nutrients of soya, the body building
qualities of tofu, and the reassuring news that one can even have
rippling muscles like Shahid Kapur — who, incidentally, is a vegetarian
and has all these as meat substitutes.
Where do they belong?
But
I always wonder about those in-betweens: vegetarian lovers of chicken.
No, that's not as contradictory as it sounds. I mean those who love to
eat a chicken before it is born, not after it is dead. Where do
egg-eaters belong?
And even as committed
environmentalists turn our attention to the benefits of living better by
consuming not animal life but plant life, what about some plants who
are consuming living things? The Venus Fly Trap and other
insect-gobbling carnivorous plants are not going to be very popular that
day for sure.
The day will however be tough on kids
who hate their vegetables; whose idea of a balanced diet is a hamburger
on each hand. But I must say I am pleased to note that in many
restaurants, the vegetarian's options are steadily growing larger
everyday. I mentioned this to my chef-pal Abhijit recently. “Time was
when people ordered their steaks rare. Now they order steaks
rarely…”says Abhijit. All this despite that rather carnivorous hit
reality show Master Chef Australia, showing several enticing ways of
biting into food before it has a chance to bite the judges back. Sure,
they also use vegetables in many wonderful creative ways — but mostly as
decorations.
And we must applaud the clever idea of
PETA giving annual awards to Celebrity Vegetarians. In the West, kids
apparently began eating up vegetables faster when their greatest film
hero Toby McGuire declared he was a total vegetarian by choice. As
Spiderman, I guess McGuire was protecting a number of his distant
relatives in the animal kingdom. In India too this celebrity strategy
surely works — especially when Kareena Kapoor was declared India's
sexiest vegetarian (even when her Size Zero made fans wish there was
more flesh on her, even if it didn't get in her.) Then Amitabh Bachchan
too confessed he was healthy and fighting fit, simply by chewing on
green leafy vegetables; quite like he once did, chewing paan
banaraswala…
No contest
Meanwhile
this year's winners of India's Sexiest Vegetarian titles have furthered
the cause of PETA even more. Among women, the winner this year is Vidya
Balan: who looks healthy, glowing and pretty as a picture, in “Dirty
Picture”. And the dashing male winner is Shashi Tharoor; he may still
occasionally travel cattle class, but no cattle in any form on his
dinner plate, thank you…
So enjoy the many healthy
options of a meatless life. And don't forget this new-age Lord's prayer
as you eat: “Give us this day our daily, multigrain, nutri-plus,
ezee-digest, super-crust, vitamin-boosted bread.”
Indu Balachandran is a travel and humour columnist. Email: indubee8@yahoo.co.in.
