Being Vegetarian

While coming to office I saw this horrendous act of “humanity”. A total WTF!!!
I am a hardcore vegetarian and cruelty towards animals hurts me physically ... emotionally ... physiologically ... any other ally one can think of. Couple of moths back I was watching a show where they showed how meat is obtained. Firstly, they showed the old fashioned way to cut an animal into meat pieces. The cow/pigs are butchered live ... one of the most shocking things that I have ever seen. Then they showed how “modern” ways ... whereby a pig is given an electric shock so that he becomes numb and then the pig is hung on a hook and a butcher slits the throat. I get nightmares just by imagining that sight. Oh how have the humanity progressed ... we even kill an innocent animal in a civilized manner. Stuff like this makes me even more determined to never eat any meat.

Whenever I go abroad ... the first question that people asks me that what you eat to survive. I always say that if you look for it ... vegetarian food is not that hard to find. The choices may be limited ... but enough to keep you honest. Many of my friends enjoys meat (couple of them are born to eat meat only ... ahahaha ... yall know who you are). I distinctly remember that once ... I and a very good friend of mine (Verma) ... were hanging around and suddenly he saw a meat shop. He went inside ... ordered some pork slices ... and ate it. I was ... like OMFG ... that was wrong on so many levels. I don’t know what got into me ... but I was totally shocked and pissed off. I scolded him like a school teacher ... gave him a serious talk down. Couple of weeks after that, he told me that he quit eating meat. Don’t think that he did it because of my outburst ... but he did quit and he is a veggie till date. NICEEE !!!

Being born in Marwari family, I was raised a vegetarian. I did try to dabble with non-veg but I could not go beyond eggs. I would be honest ... it tasted good but the feeling of guilt was so strong that I could not try it again. This is perhaps the only rule that I have followed throughout my life (so far ... so good). Would I be tempted to eat meat ... hell yeah ... that darn thing looks so delicious ... but would I be able to eat it ... I don’t (and hope) think so.

Dreams and Aims

Yesterday, while going back home ... I bumped into couple of my colleagues (Vidhi and Amit) in Metro. During our conversation, a question popped up that what is the aim of life. Hmm ... got me thinking. Vidhi said that her aim of life is not much ... she has a decent job ... earning decent salary ... and down the line she would get married and settle down. Don’t get me wrong ... I am not being a sexist ... but this is usually the typical answer of most Indian girls ... or at least most of the girls that I have talked to. Either ways, this seems kinda ... ummm ... what do you say ... you know what I mean ... not very enthralling (to say the least). I said to her that this cannot be the aim of life ... it is a routine of life ... but cannot be aim of life. She said that what else is there ... you would also get married ... have kids ... and that is basically IT. I said NOOOO ... not it. But then when I was brainstorming ... I realized that I too do not have any/many aim(s) of life. I have many dreams but don’t think I can call them aims. Or can I ... lemme think ... hmmm

Growing up, I had a dream of making it big (I mean be stinking rich ... so stinking that Armani produces a scent with my name on it). When I was young(er), I know what I have to become but did not had a clue about the means. As I got wiser, I was fascinated with the idea of having my own chain of pubs. I would call that an aim of life ... but I haven’t made any effort towards achieving it ... so it’s still a pipedream. So what next ...

I’ve been to NYC and I loved that city. If there is any place on earth that I really (reallllyyy!!!) wanna live, it has to be NY. Although it doesn’t seem like much ... but it is an immediate aim of mine. And I am working towards it ... its just that I had the worse luck in the world ... it might take a while before I visit my dream city. So yeah ... a short term aim of life is getting back there.

Kewl ... so I have the ball rolling ... what else ... what else ...

Another aim of my life is to bring joy in people’s lives ... specially my family and near and dear ones. More specifically ... when I be rolling in dough (sooner the better ... ahahahaha) ... I would like to adopt my ancestral village and transform it for betterment. It’s a small village with no real amenities. I remember as a kid I use to hate visiting that place because there were no proper roads ... no telephones ... no electricity (I don’t count 2 hours of electricity as electricity) ... no education ... and above all no TV (c'mon a kid needs to see his cartoon shows). But my father loved that place ... I always wondered why. He use to go to the chaupal (an area where prominent villagers gather) ... talk to elders ... play cards ... have cuppas ... conversations after conversations ... fun. Now that I have grown older (a little) I can see why. Like every village, the comradery among fellow villagers is very heart warming ... everyone knows each other ... basically an extended family. Its hard to find the love and affection inside the city walls. So I would like to bring a change in their lives ...

There are plenty of other small and big things which I have in my mind ... I know a lifetime may be too short to achieve all of them. But I would try ...

Rakhi '09

Don't you think Rakhis are getting prettier each year?

Happy B'day Mom

Its been so long ... innit. Yeah ... I was just being me ... lazy ass. Plenty of stuff happened in the mean time ... specially last week it was my mom’s birthday. I surprised her with a gift and she was so very pleased. The happiness on her face was priceless. I’m not the one with gifts in my hand for an occasion ... never been and probably never will be. That is why she was even more surprised that I ... I ... bought a gift for her. When mom told this to my sis ... she was also blown away. Felt good ... I should do this more often for my loved ones.