Vegetaranism...or rather non vegetarianism..

                             The transition to Vegetarianism from waddling in fiery fish curries and succulent  chicken curries, happened in a split second. The change was not foreseen..it happened before I knew it. My most favorite exercise  on holidays was smearing a small quantity of rice in the pans in which fish was fried, taking care the rice was just the correct amount, lest the flavor is lost.. How could I leave the spicy arikadukkas, ( Rice balls coating large mussels, which was coated in chilli paste and fried), the tuna sandwiches, meat balls and a host of other delicacies which was always given much thought, and gorged on with much delight. Vegetables had never crossed the threshold of my mind except on any religious day which demanded a vegetarian diet..
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Arikaduakkas

Once a vegetarian,  the question of what I would eat never for once tormented me and I found myself enjoying plain rasam rice. The fried fish on the table never beckoned...  earlier,traveling  was  always a pleasure only for the joys chicken roast and Kerala flaky porottas offered. The travails vegetarian faces when he rams around the coastal belt is to be experienced. At six in the morning, the aila curries simmer away and the chicken would have  absorbed the pungent spices to accompany the lacy appams, the crumbly puttu and the omnipotent  porottas, or the a lltime favorite kappa (tapioca). A watery green gram curry or the kadala curry and the most hated (for me) peas curry, would be the only dismal choice for the one in a million vegetarian. But not for a moment did I want to revert back.. I realized how I was always being led and ruled over  by chicken curries and fried fishes.They were the be all and end all ... My craving for arikadukkas often would find me at the wayside stalls, waiting for the cook cum owner to wrap it up in a piece of newspaper. with a steaming cup of tea.. it would have made my day, indeed. I discovered the humble tomato fry and the gobi manchurian. a sense of calm started to make its presence felt..

Gobi Manchurian

 Cravings were gone.. What does it mean? I felt freee... free from the churning of the mind of cooking and frying or buying, or eating out.. The simple wheat dosas with chutneys was all that was needed. I did not delve deep into vegetarian cookery as I thought I would..Cucumber salads and tomato sandwiches made my day. Cooking non veg was not aproblem.. I  still spooned the cuury on to my left hand and would lap it up to check on the flavors.. but I was delighted that I cuold do it without wanting for more.
Wayside stalls lost their charm and  the smell of fish slowly started taking a reverse trend... My nose started crinkling as the smell of fried fish wafted into the air! After a year, very surprisingly, my husband decided to go veg tooo. But he wasn't a foodie like me and he had always loved veg food. Loving veg food is one thing.. and turning veg was a different ballgame altogether. 

Now sometimes we were given an elevated status.. a vegetarian  in our carnivorous society was conferred a divine status! Recently I stumbled upon the fact that Swami Vivekananda not only was a non vegetarian, but advocated it too. I wanted to know more about the non-vegetarian Swami, and here are his views on non vegetarianism. Here are the experiences of Sri G. S Bhante.from his " Reminesences of Swami Vivekananda"   when he had the good luck to host him on the Swami's visi to Belgaum.in 1892.about six months before he was chosen to represent India for The Congress Of Religions which had catapulted him to fame.The swami had knocked on his door at the crack of dawn, with a note from a mutual friend. The Swami was strikingly different from the normal swamis, starting from his attire to his food habits..he later discovered..He had worn a banyan and insetad of a dande, he carried a stick. His kit consisted of a pocket book of The Gita and two other texts on the vedas. More surprises.. He stated that he was a non Brahmin, and in those days a non Brahmin Sannyasin was not acceptable nor as easy to come by. Unlike other swamis, he spoke impressive English, and preferred to converse in English. He was abreast with the current trends without deriding them.He seemed to be a man of the world..but yet detached. A shock next.. meal time, and he revealed he was a non vegetarian! and that was not all..after the meal, he asked for betel and pan..and still later..for tobacco. But all said and done, the swami was disarmingly different and endeared himself to the family by his frankness. He spoke about himself as a gay young man and a distinguished graduate of Calcutta University.He admitted to a total change in him when he met Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa..but some addictions he found difficult to change, and so he let it be as of no consequence. He said that vegetarianism was fine so long as it is not inflicted by force.
.Recently I had a similar experience where I had brought Sri Ashwathi Thirunal Rama Varma, hailing from the Travancore Royal family to sing for us as part of our fund raising programme.The previous day of the concert, I rang him up to check out his food preferences.. a bomb shell.He laughingly told me that he was a carnivore.. which did indeed unnerve me as I had expected a sambhar rice menu. He turned out to be a most gentle and considerate person who wished to be  true to himself.
I quote Swami Vivekananda.. "Rather let those belonging to the upper ten who do not earn theoir bread by by manual labor not take meat. 

Many an animal lover turns vegetarian, like Bryan Adams who is also a vegan. He has even convinced his family, and his band to turn vegetarians. Kristen Bell was nominated as the sexiest veg celebrity of 2013. She was heard saying that she found it hard to differentiate between the animals she cuddled and the meat on her plate..How Paul Mc Cartney and his whole family pushed their plates of steak and turned vegetarians is an interesting read..From his farm house on The Mull of Kintyre...

Benjamin Franklin puts it this way.... “My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of the head and quicker comprehension.”“Flesh-eating is an unprovoked murder.”

George Barnard Shaw – When told by doctors in his 90th year that he would need to eat meat to survive, he responded, “I solemnly declare that it is my last wish that when I am no longer a captive of this physical body, that my coffin when carried to the graveyard be accompanied by mourners of the following categories: first, birds; second, sheep, lambs, cows and other animals of the kind; third, live fish in an aquarium. Each of these mourners should carry a placard bearing the inscription: ‘O Lord, be gracious to our benefactor G.B. Shaw who gave his life for saving ours!’”. For more quotes of famous vegetarians:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/vegetarianism
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Eat drink and be merry can be a good motto. I wonder why do not I adhere to it? It is just that attitudes and aptitudes differ, undergo considerable change in the course of time..and, you have the liberty to live your life As you Like It.