Alpana, Mother, Clay Sculptor and Green Architect

About me, it was never hard to be a vegetarian…as being a Jain; I have been a vegetarian since I was born! But, just the thought of breeding to kill and eat has always deterred me from even trying out non-Veg food when I was grown up!

Whenever someone talks of eating chicken or beef or pork…those innocent eyes of the animal come in front of my eyes….as a child I would have tears in my eyes…but then I grew up to realize it had to come from within…one has to feel and make the choice!

About Neeraj, my husband…he had been a non-vegetarian till 6-7 years back. He quit eating “animals” because of ecological reasons. He thinks it takes up more land to feed a cow or a lamb or a chicken before it is consumed by human beings. Food grown on that same land could feed many more mouths and hence reduce pressure on land and other resources, which is such a critical environmental issue today.

And about continuing to stay vegetarian…well if you honestly believe in the reason you have chosen…it will come effortlessly… And of course urvee my daughter is a vegan…not quite by choice…but because of milk protein allergies :-)

The choice to become vegetarian led my husband and me to also change our diets drastically. But while we were willing to compromise on the egg-factor in cakes etc our son has stuck to a pure vegetarian diet.Yes going vegetarian is about making a choice to give up certain foods but it is only when you choose to give up that you realize how difficult the choice is; not because the taste buds stand in the way but because of how the system is actually against you. We discovered this overtime and had to work our way around the problems step by step.

Nevertheless….I feel it’s a blessing in disguise…and is helping us turn vegan too!!