Category Archives: Custom

Are you a “non-veggie” vegetarian?

Custom, Food & Drinks, , , , , ,

If you are a vegetarian, there could be occassions when you become a “curiosity generator”.  When people around me learn that I am a vegetarian, I usually get a series of questions in this order(more or less).

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1. Do you eat fish? No.

2. Do you eat egg? No.

3. Do you eat milk-based products? Yes.

4. What is the reason for being a veggie – Religous? Yes.

I have to say that this happens mostly when I happen to be outside India. In India, vegetarians are pampered with choice. And the questions are very few. After all, 31% of Indians are vegetarians(according to this study). While living in USA, the choice for veg. food got drastically reduced, but the situation was still managable. There was a veggie burger,a veg. pizza or cheese pizza,  a veg. sandwich, a bean burrito or  veg noodles available somewhere nearby. The situation is quite similar in Europe as well. But China was an altogether different experience.

During my initial days in China, I did not have the courage to go to a restaurant alone. Either the menu is all in Mandarin, which I could not read, or in some cases when a menu had the pictures of the dishes, I could not ask and confirm if a dish was vegetarian. So, one of the first things I did was to get a note written in Mandarin from one of my Chinese colleagues which said ” No meat, no fish, no egg please”. I showed this note to the waiter while ordering food. Whenever I went outside my house, I never forgot to carry my home key, mobile, wallet and this “food ordering note”. And when I started my Mandarin classes, the first thing I learned was how to say I am a vegetarian.

The “fun” didn’t stop there. China is a predominantly non-vegetarian nation where only Buddist monks or very pious people are vegetarian. So when I order a vegetarian food, the unmistakeable look on the face of the waiter(es) is ” Is this guy from Mars or Jupiter?”. During a couple of occassions, I heard some giggling immediately after I ordered food. Perhaps I was the butt of some joke ??!!

Even though I have been a vegetarian for so long, I didn’t know quite a few things about vegetarianism. Like, some of the classifications of vegetarians or some jargons. There are also different definitions of who is a vegetarian. But now, I know better, thanks to an article from BBC. The article talks about a “classic vegetarian, vegan, meat-avoider, meat-reducer and green-eater”. Then there is a “flexitarian”. The article also points to “The Vegetarian Society” , which has been in existence since 1847(long time indeed).

The list of jargon doesn’t end there. Here is a sample.

  •  Lacto-vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats dairy products but not egg
  • Ovo-vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats egg but not dairy products
  • Lacto-ovo vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats both egg and dairy products
  • Fruitarian – someone whose diet has only fruits and related things
  • Raw vegan – one who eats only raw vegetables

There are more definitions, but I guess most of the vegetarians fall in one of the categories above. So, next time someone asks me what type of vegetarian I am, I have a two word answer – “Lacto vegetarian”. Only thing is, I will still have to explain what it means 🙂

PS: The BBC article titled “The rise of the non-veggie vegetarian” is available here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8341002.stm

Image credit –http://www.flickr.com/photos/yolagringo/ / CC BY 2.0

What is in a name?

Custom, Language, Tradition, , , , ,

Roman Polanski, Polish film director, has been in the daily news here in Switzerland because of his arrest and subsequent imprisonment. After a point, the news became stale but it raised my curiousity about his name. I asked myself,  “why do most Polish surnames end in – ski/cki/dzki ? ” The answer to this question led me to some interesting cultural learnings(?!).

In Polish language, “ski/cki/dzki”(masculine) or “ska/cka/dzka” (feminine) are adjectives that mean one of these – of/from/nobility. So, Kowalski means “of Blacksmith(Kowal)” and Bradowski means “lord of Bradow”. So Polanski might mean “of Poland”.  My curiosity now increased and I started looking for similarities in other languages. And I started with Russian names.

The common Russian names end in “ov, ev” for men and “ova, eva” for women. Apparently these mean son and daughter respectively. Hence the names like Kasparov, Gorbachev and Medevedev for men and Kournikova, Sharapova and Dementieva for women.

Then I remembered what a Dutch friend told about names from Netherlands. Many of the Dutch surnames start with a Van(of/from) and de(the). Examples – Van Gogh(meaning – from Gogh), de Groot(the large one).

The funny story behind these Dutch names is that, before Napoleon annexed Netherlands, Dutch did not necessarily have surnames. When Napoleon forced them to have surnames, the Dutch chose names to confuse or make fun of the French rulers. For example, according to Wikipedia, the surname Rotmensen means “Rotten people” and Naaktgeboren means “born naked“.

But two very interesting naming traditions come from Africa. In one of these traditions from Ghana, children are given one of the days of the week as a name. For example, Ghana’s first President Khwane Nikrumah was born on a Saturday and hence has “Khwane(Saturday)” in his name. The “Kofi” in ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stands for Friday(Thanks to Abhi for this information).

The second tradition comes from the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert(remember the hilarious movie series – the Gods must be crazy?). They have an exclamation/clicking sound in their names. For example, the name of the protagonist in the movie, “the Gods must be crazy”, is Nǃxau(Try to pronounce it). Watch a video from the movie here.

That brings us to Indian names. The north-Indian names follow the pattern of a first,middle and a last name. But names become somewhat complex in South India. The order of name changes a bit and it usually in this order – Father’s name, First name and Last name. In some cases, there is also the name of the place of origin. Take the case of one of the former prime ministers, P.V. Narasimha Rao. The full name is Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao.

South Indians encounter this name issue when they go abroad. For people not familiar with these long names, it is quite difficult to pronounce them. So, to make their life easy, these names are shortened. Haven’t you noticed a “Krishnan” becoming Kris, “Laxmanan” becoming “Lux”, “Gomathi Sundaram” becoming “Gomez” …..and a “Madhavan” becoming Maddy?

After all, what is in a name? 🙂

PS: Don’t miss a funny video from Stand Up comedian Russel Peters here.

Source information – Wikipedia