TOPICS: Vegans are sensible

It was about a year back, a shrieking woman woke me up. I was with a group of colleagues working with children on the post earthquake trauma in the rural areas of the country.

This screaming woman had arranged our home stay at her place. This could be the only reason I didn’t pound on her after what I was witnessing. She was cursing and wiping a day old calf accusing him of stealing the cow’s milk, his mother’s milk, she seemed furious.

She complained that the cow had managed to change her sitting position despite being tied up and had allowed the infant to suckle her. The calf too worked on putting all his effort on getting closer to the cow despite a short leash.

Was she even hearing herself, I questioned myself. “The calf isn’t stealing, you are stealing from them both.”

So, yes, vegans are extremists, for they have extreme tolerance capacity. They go against the false childhood conditioning that animals are here to serve humans, to see the injustice and choose to take action against it, against all odds.

Vegans live by the fact that charity begins at home, which is why they turn vegan, never force others. Vegan is not a diet, it is a way of life. Vegans aren’t health conscious, they are sentiment conscious. They choose and value others over their own.

Vegans go against all stereotypes created by the society because no religion, no culture, no custom is more important than life, life of any sentient being.

No, vegans are not hyper sensitive, they are the sensible ones, for they deal with a variety of remarks and queries on a daily basis, yet, choose to react to it as if they heard it for the first time.“So what are you allowed to eat?”, “Sheep is not killed for wool so what is the logic behind not wearing wool?”, “Cows give us milk, why are you against that?”, “Parties! What do you eat at parties?”, “ What about your make-up?”, “ Vegans are selfish and difficult people to deal with.”, “ Vegans are extremists.” “ Where do you get your protein from?”, “If we don’t eat animals, won’t the ecosystem be disturbed?” With time, such remarks and queries have become more creative and interesting.

As a vegan, yes I am thick skinned, stubborn and an extremist. Because, like any other vegan, I believe all living beings have the right to live, not to be owned, not to be misused, not to be mistreated, not to be farmed, not to be bred, not to be killed and are not sharing the earth for entertaining the human race.