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Over the past five summers, I got to read and listen to repeated pleas and arguments that attempted to get\u00a0me off the vegan wagon: \u201cYou NEED to consume dairy\u201d; \u201cEven Gandhi used to drink milk\u201d; \u201cYou will\u00a0realize your folly only when you reach our age and your bones fail you.\u201d \u00a0Unfortunately for me, all of these\u00a0were no longer going to be from a phone line halfway across the globe, or no more jarring than beeping\u00a0incoming e-mail. \u00a0I was also conscious that I tended to be defensive, as against combative, when it came to\u00a0explaining my vegan ways. \u00a0I felt that I would at least have to be well-prepared. \u00a0Is it any wonder then that I\u00a0decided to go armed with literature that I freshly downloaded from PETA.org and a few other animal\u00a0rights groups\u2019 Web sites?<\/p>\n My concerns about venturing into culinary and sartorial battlefields were, however, momentarily forgotten\u00a0when I set foot again in India. \u00a0It felt wonderful to soak in all the love and affection, to connect again with\u00a0boyhood friends, and to take trips down memory lane. \u00a0And, yes, I did also see from close range the\u00a0numerous described changes\u2014the sprouting of many a McDonald\u2019s and Pizza Hut; a burgeoning and cash-rich\u00a0middle class being wooed into spending on designer clothes, Yanni concerts, and vacation packages;\u00a0hordes of new Hyundais, Mitsubishis, and Fords clogging already congested and chaotic roads; and\u00a0ballooned prices \u2013 from real estate to commodities \u2013 that made me wonder how most people managed to\u00a0make ends meet.<\/span><\/p>\n Not surprisingly, my unusual vegan preferences followed me everywhere, figuring as a conversation topic\u00a0in all of my social interactions. \u00a0Interestingly, when I would explain to people in the U.S. that I was a vegan\u00a0(or \u201cstrict vegetarian\u201d), many would reason that it was because I was from India \u2013 \u201cAren\u2019t most people\u00a0vegetarian in India?\u201d \u00a0When I was in India, on the other hand, and letting acquaintances know about my\u00a0lifestyle choices, there were some who opined bluntly, \u201cHe has been in America for too long!\u201d (America,\u00a0as in \u201cwhere people make a lot of noise about human rights and animal rights.\u201d) \u00a0I let them know that I was\u00a0a high-school student in India when I learned of the animal bones connection and swore off gelatin-containing\u00a0jelly (and even sugar for a while, until a queried Chemistry teacher dismissed the bone char\u00a0connection as \u201cnot really so\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n This brush with \u201cknowledge association\u201d and the accompanying stereotyping gave me pause for more\u00a0thought. \u00a0Now, I often find myself earnestly dismissing stereotypes, not just negative but also positive ones. \u00a0It didn\u2019t seem sound to me that multifaceted human beings could be wholly slotted on the basis of\u2014as\u00a0often seen\u2014just one attribute. \u00a0But while I was in Madras and seated at a restaurant, it struck me that deep\u00a0down, there was now one trait that I would willingly accept as defining me: vegan. \u00a0(Of course, true to\u00a0nature, I will want to dismiss that all vegans are alike, or that veganism is all there is to a vegan.) \u00a0For,\u00a0seated there, I didn\u2019t feel like a returning Indian at ease in the city where he grew up. \u00a0I felt simply like a\u00a0wary vegan explaining, \u201cI don\u2019t consume [this, this, this, and this]\u201d! \u00a0That scene could just as well have had\u00a0me play a graduate student in Ann Arbor or a tongue-tied tourist in Tel Aviv. \u00a0The sameness in the\u00a0scenarios stood out in my mind.<\/p>\n I came to encounter other similarities too: mishaps in my efforts to consume only vegan food. \u00a0Still, I\u00a0probably got by more easily than I do here in the American Midwest, simply because there were a lot more\u00a0vegetarian and vegan-friendly food establishments around. \u00a0However, this abundance was counterbalanced\u00a0somewhat by the sparser availability of definitive information. \u00a0Many a time I found myself unsure about\u00a0the actual ingredients in a number of foodstuffs, which I inevitably gave the skip.<\/p>\n I had no such problems when invited to the homes of relatives and friends. \u00a0I am not sure whether they all\u00a0understood, but they catered to my dietary preferences graciously. \u00a0I also enjoyed being by my to-be-wed\u00a0brother\u2019s side when he went over the wedding arrangements with the hotel staff: \u201c500 plates, including one\u00a0vee-gan, as in \u2026\u201d! \u00a0Of course, it pained me to be party to the purchase of silk and woolen clothing and to\u00a0see all the unthinking, ostentatious display of silk at the wedding. \u00a0But I refrained from expressing my\u00a0disapproval except when asked for my opinion on a prospective purchase or a worn outfit. \u00a0I just derived\u00a0comfort from contributing to at least some measure of awareness, as when my brother\u2019s fianc\u00e9e supervised\u00a0his careful selection of a silk-free necktie gift for me.<\/p>\n As for my stay at my parents\u2019 place: I wasn\u2019t surprised that they had this urge to indulge me during my\u00a0\u201cshort\u201d stay, and I felt thankful for having a loving family. \u00a0(True, there were occasions when I was\u00a0reminded of that wise saying, \u201cHappiness is having a loving, caring family in another city\u201d!) \u00a0I was also\u00a0glad for the fact that there were many vegan or easily-veganizable recipes from which to choose. \u00a0Ours\u00a0was, moreover, a multicultural home with influences from several different cuisines.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, some comment or the other about the supposed pitfalls of veganism would crop up\u00a0unfailingly. \u00a0After yet another verbal duel, I decided finally to unpack and pull out my pro-vegan literature. \u00a0I would have been disappointed if they did not produce any effect, but I had not expected what was to\u00a0come. \u00a0As I condensed a certain long piece of literature into a commentary to my mother, I noticed my\u00a0father going over a PETA\u00a0pamphlet keenly. \u00a0Admittedly, he was affected by what he saw and read, and he\u00a0abstained from meat for at least the rest of my stay.<\/p>\n I have not managed to silence my family\u2019s concerns about my vegan ways, but I have noted that the focus\u00a0has since shifted to how \u201cpunishing\u201d my lifestyle was. \u00a0I realize that I had been conveying a sense of self-sacrifice\u00a0(\u201cI would rather waste away than have an animal be harmed for my sake\u201d) that didn\u2019t go down\u00a0well. \u00a0I realize now that I would do better to show that it is easy to be a vegan. \u00a0Cut me some slack, will\u00a0you! \u00a0It was, after all, only the first time that I was visiting family since turning vegan.<\/p>\n Ann Arbor, Michigan Originally published as part of a collection of essays at VegSource.com<\/a>. \u00a0Edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Editor’s note:<\/p>\n If you are a fellow vegan, read: Take Vitamin B12 Supplements to Prevent Deficiency<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"PETA](\"https:\/\/www.jodi365.com\/singledout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/PETA-misc-activist-starter-kit.jpg\")
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\nJune 30, 2000<\/p>\n