I follow Veganism and I get this particular question “Why are you vegan?” so often that I thought why not write about it and spread some awareness.

For those wondering what veganism is, here’s a quick wikipedia definition — “a way of living that attempts to exclude all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty”.

Most people when they think about veganism, they think it’s just about food. While food is a big part of it, but there’s a lot more to it. Being vegan is a lifestyle choice, it includes everything from your soap, face wash, face creams to your clothes, wallets and even your investments, basically everything.



The blog follows a conversational pattern, more like an FAQ. So, let’s start.

Why are you vegan?

I chose vegan because I realised that I was demanding for killing and torture of animals for a piece of food on my plate. And I realised that a life is not that worthless — it shouldn’t be.


So, you used to eat non-vegetarian food before?

Yeah, I used to love having non-vegetarian food for all these years, but once I realised the implications of me having non-vegetarian or dairy or just wearing woollen or silk clothes, I had no option but to start on my journey to being vegan.


What triggered this thought? / What motivated you to take this big step?

My martial art trainer, Binu Sensei (Sensei in Japanese means teacher) is vegan and through him I got to know about veganism. And since I was curious about it having never known about veganism before, he recommended me to read a book Heads and Tails — by Maneka Gandhi. So the book and several follow up discussions with my Sensei made me realise that I have a choice to make a difference. And I’m really grateful to him for introducing me to veganism and helping me be a bit more compassionate.


But plants have life too? It’s just that they can’t express pain like animals do?

This boils down to a purely scientific question — Can plants feel pain? And the answer is we don’t know for sure but most biologists would say they don’t because plants do not have pain receptors or a nervous system or a brain to process emotions like pain.

On the other hand, animals, we certainly know do feel pain. So…


It must be hard to follow veganism in India?

That’s what I thought when I started.

But turns out it’s not hard at all. Most of the food on my plate everyday has always been vegan. But I do have a bit of a hard time while I’m dining out, I’ve to hunt for vegan dishes in the menu and always give extra instructions to not add butter, ghee, cheese etc.

Cutting down on chai was something I had a challenge with in the beginning, but it was only psychological than anything else. If you are clear on your purpose to be vegan — and remind yourself what it takes for that cup of tea, things start falling into place.


How do your parents allow it? Don’t your parents force you into eating non-vegan?

Fortunately I had started this when I was staying outside for work. So they didn’t know about it for a few months until I went home for Diwali, a festival of sweets — and they were furious to see me not even touch a single sweet.

Initially they found it completely irrational. After a few conversations they understood the thought, but still weren’t convinced.

They made good effort to change me into eating non veg or at least dairy again, but they soon realized their effort was in vain.

Finally, they got onboard and are perfectly fine with it.

Now that I’m thinking, I suppose if I had tried veganism while being at home with my parents — I might have had a hard time starting the journey itself.


Do you have cheat days?

No. Having a cheat day here would be like — since I have saved 100 lives let’s kill 2 now, which is still better than killing 100 but I don’t do that.

That doesn’t mean I don’t cheat at all. There are times when my determination falls weak. Sometimes I really crave eating something, so those times I would taste or eat a thing. Like eating a piece of chocolate once in a while, but I think I worry about it much lesser because the milk percentage is very low. (Btw there are vegan chocolates too).

This is something I realised late. It’s not about how accurately you follow. It’s about sustaining it and continuing to make a difference, sometimes you might fail but all the other times when you don’t matter more.


Do you take any vitamin supplements?

Not really. Like I said before, most food on my plate every day has always been vegan. I was not a milk fan anyway, and I think most people don’t like it either. So it boils down to tea, curd and occasional ice creams/cakes that I’ve given up.

I drink Soya milk (which is usually fortified with B12) as a substitute to cow’s milk, which kind of gives me the needed B12 and calcium.


Your bones will get weaker? How would you manage pregnancy, et ?

Even though I don’t quite like this question, for the sake of answering, I really don’t think my bones are getting any weaker at all. I do martial arts and I think I’m quite fit. But this is what we are made to think, we have become victims of the advertisement by the dairy industry. In fact a lot of cancers and other diseases that are trending these days are caused because of milk and the adulterations they do in order to keep it fresh.

A lot of top athletes like Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams follow vegan diet too, and it has only improved their game. You can watch the documentary The Game Changers if you are interested to see how.


How does one person make a difference anyway?

We all know the demand-supply chain, right. Even if one person doesn’t eat animals/dairy, it reduces the demand by a small percentage which means saving a few lives (from torture and murder), so that’s enough for me to get going.

But in practice, the difference is more. Because when I gave up — my family started ordering less of it, and my friends avoid ordering when I’m around. Not because I make faces when they order — because I don’t ;) it just becomes easy to go with a common order. So I’m winning more than I anticipated. Plus, few of my friends got influenced and are reconsidering their choices. And, I get a bonus when someone talks to me about it and gets inspired, influenced or at least aware.


Would you eat if we get milk from a local seller rather than a big industry?

NO. While for a fact industries torture animals an order of magnitude more than a local vendor, but they still torture. The local vendor has to get the cow regularly RAPED to make her pregnant so that they can constantly pump out the milk. So no, I can’t fool myself to buy dairy from local vendors.


Milk industry generates a lot of revenue. It contributes to our GDP, what about that?

Seriously, What a degree of insensitivity!

We are murdering and killing beings here in the name of GDP and nation’s growth.

We humans are smart, we can easily find kinder and better alternatives which can then contribute to the GDP. This is what we thrive in, right — solving problems. What we lack is compassion and kindness. Let’s focus on that and together we can build a sustainable and happy planet where #AllLivesMatter.


Is pain really bad? After all we all have one life. We don’t know what’s right and wrong? Why bother ourselves with all right/wrongs?

Deep thought, but No. These philosophical questions can’t justify all the tortures and murdering. Whatever pain is, I won’t like it if what we do to a cow is done to me or someone I love. Then if I make the cow go through it, how would I justify it to myself?

Checkout this Oscars speech by Joaquin Phoenix where he talks about fighting against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate and control another.


Ye sub ammero k chonchle hai — (roughly translated to — These things are that the rich do for time pass)

This was said by a friend and colleague in a playful way, which a vegan could find offensive, but a part of it is fairly true. Ethics and morals kind of come with privilege. People who are going through a survival crisis, which a lot of India does, this might not be the battle they would like to fight.

But on the other hand, veganism isn’t expensive, I mean aren’t vegetables and fruits cheaper than meat. I agree alternatives to cow milk like soya milk, almond milk or vegan chocolates are more expensive. But if we all adopt veganism, producing vegan products will become mainstream — hence cheaper and widely accessible.



My heart wrenches when I hear news like these -

  • Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopter in Australia due to a drought

(https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-51032145). When this news broke out. I was expressing my despair, someone said why are they gun shooting them, they can rather eat their meat. This is the level of sensitivity and respect we have for other lives.

  • Around 6000 chickens buried alive due to huge losses after the coronavirus outbreak

(https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/coronavirus-scare-farmer-buries-6000-chickens-alive-karnataka/story/397985.html)



I feel deeply miserable when I see goats tied on a Bakra-Eid, and you’ll see nothing but helplessness when you look into their eyes — aren’t they as much of a life as you and I are. And this is not just Islam. Hindus too, we are such hypocrites, we say, “Gaay hamari mata hai” (cows are our mothers) and then get the same cow raped over and over again to get her milk. Only a murderous moron would do something like this to her mother. I’m not aiming to point at a religion here, I’m sure other religions too, cause a lot of harm to animals in the name of religion and sacrifice. None of us are behind in being cruel and inhuman. Even the word humanity is a wrong word for compassion — given what we have been doing throughout our history. Watch this video to see what I mean.

We use millions of rats, monkeys, squirrels for our scientific experiments. Grow farms of cows, chickens, pigs and all sorts of animals for people to consume. Fishing and getting other seafood like prawns, squids, etc — we don’t even realise when we are talking about lives when we talk about meat or seafood. Sometimes I really wish there were no butchers so that we should have to cut the animals ourselves in order to eat them and then let’s see how many of us still want to eat it.

People say it’s a food pyramid, lions have to eat deer. That’s how life works. Sure, it does work like that. But what we humans do is systematic torture of the animals. Their whole lives revolve around getting born for us, being dumped in small cages where they can hardly move, and if they are lucky - finally getting killed.

Only for a year we have been asked to be indoors to control the Covid-19 outbreak, we feel caged, and helpless. People are getting depressed, committing suicides, and a ton of psychological issues. And by the way, we are still a lot free to move where we want.

Now for a moment imagine your life to be treated like that cow you drink milk from, or that chicken you ate that day. And tell me if you were to be one of those animals, would you justify someone’s reasons for your life and suffering that way.



I would conclude this writeup by this thought that deep down we all know the truth. There’s hardly anything you didn’t know already that I’ve said above. But we conveniently choose to remain ignorant — because Ignorance is bliss. We avoid looking at the truth because it makes us feel miserable and guilty and demands giving up things we are used to doing, while what we should actually do, is take charge and be the change — because every single one of us makes a difference.

Thank you for reading. Now next time when you order that cheese burst pizza, or an ice cream bucket, just take a moment to think what are the implications and whether it is what you would really like to do!