Don't ban beef in my name, please
So beef got banned in one more state. As an animal rights activist, I should be happy right? Nope. Today is confession and contrition time.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I stand at a very personal place here. I have volunteered at animal shelters for years. Adopted abandoned animals. Fostered wounded ones.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015And for years, one by one I removed animal derived food items from my diet. Trust me, that was the most difficult task of all.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I was brought up in a ferociously non-vegetarian Kanyakubja Brahmin family. Meat and fish were an everyday dietary item Pork on special days
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Except Saturdays when God decided to take attendance to check who was eating what on that day. And the monsoon months. Well rules were bent.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015We could eat meat as long as meat wasn't brought into the house. So eating ordered-in non-vegetarian food at the doorstep was fine.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015And then you slowly start realising that the food you eat has a status and a caste. Fish is holy. Eaten as part of Niyambhang post Shradh.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Mutton is expensive. Eaten by the privileged. The Savarnas. The Eastern Brahmins loved their meat too much to subscribe to a Satvik diet.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Not only were food stories placed in a stratified manner, it was also based on lies. Chicken wasn't clean as it was 'foreign' meat. Lowly.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Chicken is of course more Indian than Brahmins, domesticated in the region centuries before the first Arya set foot http://t.co/zdlExjvmMt
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Navigating and learning culinary prejudices is not just questioning who eats what, but also who can eat what and who is allowed to eat what.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Although my life in Jharkhand didn't perceive vegetarianism as upper-caste, I did experience it with different kinds of meat. Esp re Tribals
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015So eating ants was abhorrent. http://t.co/V6IuaU3TVP And no snakes or rats. Never mind inequity had forced entire castes to eat rats.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I was navigating these spaces quite well because I was cushioned from every blow due to my Savarna privileges. I could eat whatever I want.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015It was moving to Delhi to study where my interest in animal rights started taking form. It was a deeply discomforting journey.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I started volunteering at an animal shelter. Rescuing animals. Removing ticks from animals' anuses. And continued eating meat. Oh yes.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015You see. I could Eat Pigs, Love Dogs and Wear Cows. Carnist they call us. Hypocrites would be better. Stings more. http://t.co/G12SILoHkZ
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Until one day I realised that I couldn't do it anymore - eat meat. That I would have to give up eating meat. To be more aligned from within.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015But I didn't go cold turkey, pun unintended. I continued drinking milk. Eating eggs. Chicken occasionally. Palate yearned meat, you see.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015What we consume is not just flesh, or plants. We consume cultures, memories, entire ways of life. And then beget and perpetuate it.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Bijoya meant Ilish and Mutton curry. Birthdays meant Murgh Mumtaz. Eating out meant Golden fried prawns. I took time replacing them all.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015It was deeply personal journey. A battle I fought with my palate. With my morals. Between me and my heart. I won. I lost. But it was all me.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Not once did I tell my family or friends what to eat or not to eat. Because it wasn't and isn't any of my business. I dictate what I eat.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Working at shelters brings you close to the cattle rescued from slaughter houses. Daring rescues in the middle of the night of smuggled cows
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015While I did and do commend rescue of animals that are being transported in cruel conditions, I wonder who stops countless chicken in trucks?
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Drinking milk as a full grown adult and not complicit in cow slaughter? Banning cow slaughter and not the dairy industry?
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Banning cow slaughter but also encouraging the leather industry. I said this then, I say this now: HYPOCRITE! https://t.co/n0A47N6CoS
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Ban what you choose to ban. But don't ban beef in my name. Not for me as an animal rights activist. Not as a Brahmin. Not as a Hindu.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I do wish to see a world that is kinder to animals. But I do realise I live in a grossly unequal world. Classified world. Stratified world.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015So for now I wish to see better slaughter houses. More humane practices. Kinder transport. More equitable access to food for the poor.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015My views on the meat industry still stand: https://t.co/xlrKh164JS These tweets are for the rich, the savarna, the consumers, the white.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015We live in a grossly unequal world. I want to see a world where Indian Muslims aren't equated with cow slaughter alone. Dirty. Cruel.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I want to see a world that also questions that Savarna farmer who sells that cow once barren. Or maybe not. Whom to blame? Why? Why?
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Who will take care of the old and infirm cows? More Gaushalas? Who's paying for them? And the methane prodcued? Modernize abattoirs instead?
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I was brought up Brahmin. Pet cow and all. I remember asking my mother why a cow is holy. She said because the cow has breast fed me too.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015It made sense to my child's mind. But I read this news today, read the fine print: Buffalo exempt. Why? Pink revolution. Makes money, yo.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Buffaloes that get drained of that last drop of milk ain't maternal enough for you, O custodians of the Brahminical faith?
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015Decriminalize cow slaughter. Decriminalize food. Decriminalize choice. Criminalize Hunger. Criminalize inequity. Criminalize bigotry.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015In this strange country cars can be bought at a better interest rate than loans are given to farmers. Play that inequity. But not in my name
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015To Muliya whom I sneered at when she ate rats, I am sorry. To Joseph whom I derided for eating snakes, I am sorry. To Sharih for beef, sorry
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015To Yansa whom I despised for eating dogs, I am sorry. To H^^^ whose picked bamboo shoots I found stinking, I am sorry. I learned too late.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015I will continue to walk this vegan path. It's a rocky road. I will falter. But I will walk it alone. For this is mine alone to walk.
— Bodhi Cat | मयंक (@VagabondBodhi) March 3, 2015