USA’s founding fathers are recognized as pioneers and visionary leaders. On the eve of Fourth of July, USA’s independence day, FastCompany published an interesting article about what lessons can be learned from them. The article lists 4 lessons
– the courage of convictions
– the sanctity of sacrifice
– the fulfillment of faith
– the power of purpose.
The article is quite insightful and can be found here.
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).
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.
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