Vegetarianism.

It is a rather odd but grammatically correct usage to use vegetarian and non-vegetarian as words to describe food in Indian English which is now called Hindish or Indish depending on which part of the country you come from. So, please bear with me when I use the latter quite liberally in this post.

I think that this powerful post from Tammy at Peanut On The Table is a good place to start this post. Please do read it before you proceed any further. Thank you Tammy.

I come from a traditional vegetarian family background and my late mother never in her life had even an egg though she would happily cook eggs for us. My father however became a non-vegetarian while still in school due to his best friend having been one.  My father as well as that friend saw to it that my three siblings and I grew up to eat and like non vegetarian food,   Other than one brother who lives in the UK, the other three of us have now all become vegetarians for various reasons, mostly due to aging I should imagine.

I have been a vegetarian since mid 1998. It is fashionable to give up milk and milk products too when one does that,  but I have not. I have not given up eggs either. I was quite well known among my circle of friends and family for being a good cook of non-vegetarian dishes, and I continue to cook them for others on occasion.

For me, it is strictly a matter of personal choice and I do not proselytise vegetarianism.  My son and daughter in law with who I live, are both non-vegetarians and so is our pet dog Chutki.  When we entertain at home, non-vegetarian food is more often the rule than the exception.  I have no problems with that as long as I am not expected to eat that.  This occasionally gives problems during family outings when people have to find out whether where we go to dine offers some good vegetarian food but since I can be quite content with some bread and eggs, mostly this is solved to everyone’s satisfaction.

I  conclude this post with one observation.  If you have to be a vegetarian for whatever reason, there is no country like India to be in.  The variety of vegetarian dishes that you can encounter everywhere is just mind boggling.  You will simply be spoilt for choice.

This topic was suggested by me, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently eight of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order,  Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!