Of west and the concept of vegetarianism..

After spending 26 years in India, one has a picture of vegetarianism. The picture looks something like

• Not bringing in meat into the house, let alone kitchen
• Meat includes anything starting from fish, chicken all the way upto beef and pork
• If it is a hotel, it means keeping the kitchens and/or dishes separate
• Separation in terms of eating places. Sitting away from the places where meat is being consumed. I must say this statement is outdated.

Then I went to US for a short visit. :). Here's the story.

My roomie had clearly told that 'cheese burger' (though the name has no part of non-vegetarian item) will have 'beef' in between the harmless looking bread pieces; when ordering food in McDonalds or burger king, make sure you tell 'no meat', 'no fish', 'no chicken', 'no egg' and 'no mushroom' (the last 2 are my own preferences.. no arguments whether they are non-veg or veg).

Inspite of these, on my first visit to McDonalds, I repeated the above sentence without fault and in one breath. I could find the lady behind the counter make a face (as if saying 'which galaxy are you from?') and say 'You dont even eat chicken?' .. phew..

And in my office cafeteria, I asked for a veggie burger. The guy (without changing the gloves which served non-veg before me) just brought a chicken burger and replaced the chicken part with lettuce and handed it over to me. I didn't have a choice but to pay him and throw the burger.

Later on, my US manager mentioned that the concept of vegetarianism was nothing but not eating meat. This was by choice and not by religion. By default, they are non-vegetarians and hence preparation doesn't matter to them (They eat only bread anyways.. :P..). Only the followers of Buddhism were supposed to follow such strict practices of food preparation.

Forward 3 years.. around the same time, but slightly easter than US, in UK this time. I went to Subway to have a sub to satiate the paapi peth. The lady in front of me took a sub with Tuna and some onions. Next was me.

Her - :) Hello.. what're you having?
Me - :) A veggie delite.
Her - :) 6 inch or a foot?
Me - :) 6 inch
Her - :) Which bread?
Me - :) Italian

At this point, I was planning to break the turns and ask 'can you please change the gloves please?'. But she didn't give me a chance.

Her - :) You want me to change the gloves?
Me - Yes please... :D..
Her: :)

Looks like either the world is accepting the Indian concept of vegetarianism or it could just be a quality process which is doing the trick. Whatever it is, does help the old fashioned vegetarian.


Closing credits: Picture courtesy: Vinodhini.

Murphy's laws and..

my experiences..

• It rains the day I wash my vehicle. It always does.
• Your subordinate falls sick when he is needed most.
• - corollary: When you feel you'll fall sick, you know there will be lot of work.
• When the bladder is about to burst, closest one has 'cleaning in progress' blocker.
• When everyone praises you for something, you'll prove them wrong soon.
• When things go as planned for the most awaited event, a stupid reason postpones it.
• You sleep more and better, if you think you want to jog in the morning.

But the list seems endless. Its the same old feel.


Disclaimer and closing credits: GR triggered this blog.

times of India

I feel my generation.. those born in the 70's have had to witness the maximum change in India, more than any other generation. (My father agrees. Not sure about his father though.. ;D..) . There have been so many changes over a period of 10 years that sometimes I find it hard to figure out which side of India I am in.. the one about 10 years ago or the one which just passed around 3 years ago or the one which is there right now. But the rules of open mind give some solace by just accepting changes as they are and me being what I am at that moment.

What changes am I talking about?

Lifestyle?

The overall lifestyle of people has changed. Blame it on mobile revolution, cable TV and boom of consumerism, we are far better than where we were 10 years ago. The pace which took my parents to get to a level of comfort in life took exponentially less time for me to reach there and beyond. For my juniors, much much lesser. Its not about money, but the mindset.

Mindset?

Comes in easy money, comes with it the liberation of thoughts. Blame it on IT/BPO revolution and American influence on philosophy, thoughts and urge for expression of those thoughts. From single track (which seems mostly due to around three and a half centuries of captivation), goal oriented restless one, Indian mind seems to have matured into a far more relaxed, looking-at-the-big-picture-of-life kind of a mind.. (phew.. :)..). Its not all about mind, but freedom.

Freedom?

The very picture of freedom has changed. Blame it on educated analytical mind, internet, and the haute couture of being different and individualistic opinionism (makes sense?). Freedom meant responsibility. It meant to be one-in-the-crowd. This crowd could mean a family, a community, a city or the country. An unwritten code of conduct was followed. Crowd meant more to the individual, than himself or herself. This has changed today. It means freedom to be yourself. It means voicing your opinion and not be obliged to be one-in-the-crowd. It means being assertive enough not to follow the crowd if that is not where one wants to go. Its not all about freedom, but started with family.

Family?

Joint families were common around 30 years ago. They still exist, but are exceptions than common. Blame it on population explosion, globalization and industrialization. The joint families broke into nuclear families. The next thing is what I call unclear families. Unclear yet? Its not all about family, but woman.

Woman?

Woman has changed. Blame it on financial freedom and woman's liberation. The family used to be woman centric with man earning the bread and the lady managing the home. This has changed with both man and the lady working both at home and outside. Then there is the next one, where there is no marriage(or a Gandharva Vivaha?), rather the commitment to relationship/family. Unclear family is just relative to the nuclear family as I described earlier.

Huh.. I've hit the end of tunnel for today. I don't find the need for a conclusion of this topic since this is just an observation and not meant to conclude anything. No judgments to be made nor a statement. On a weekend I would rather save those grey cells than burn them. mmm.. Did I succeed?

Norwich trip

We started without any concrete plans. We just knew there was a dinosaur park and a famous shopping mall called Forum.


We landed in the train station and there was no information centre. We just started walking on the path we could see. We walked for about 5 mins, we could not see anything happening and thought we might have lost our way. We hopped into a petrol pump and asked for directions. Luckily we were on the right track. We had burger at Burger King (of late, this has been the only savior of we vegetarians in our trips) in Castle mall. Due to new years eve, there were deals all over the place.


We went to Forum mall and the first thing we saw was ice skating. All of us just jumped after some convinving of each other. I was especially skeptical after my first time this February. But this time it was better. I could move a bit. Three times, I felt I was getting the hang of it. I fell at all those instances.. :D. Next winter should be better. Thanks to Vijay for this picture.


We roamed around some more in the malls and got late for the Norwich castle. We just had a photo session outside it to mark our attendance.


We just managed to get back home and lie around till the midnight to wish ourselves a Happy new year.