Thursday, September 10, 2015

M(Eat) Pray Love (Do whatever the f@*k)

Am I hearing this right?
Is the Government really telling me what or what not to eat? I mean, are we still a functioning democracy? I don’t know exactly but last I checked my fundamental rights were still not extinct.
And all this from a person who has never had an anda her entire life. Yes, that’s right.  Gape all you want but a strict vegetarian is standing right up against this absurd ban. Because this is not about an ‘anda’ or even a ‘murgi’ per se. This is about my FREEDOM OF CHOICE. These three words I wish to use more cautiously than any others for the fear that they have been toyed around with for so long that, unfortunately enough, they seem to have lost their essence.
Today as an ‘uchh koti ka brahmin’  I can easily choose to keep shut and look the other way because the government is favoring my set of beliefs. (I too feel strongly against people eating meat – and by meat I mean any kind of meat – NOT JUST COWS. If you ask me, no animal should be slaughtered. Ever!)
Famous Russian thinker Leo Tolstoy once said and I quote, “A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”
AGAIN IMMORAL – NOT ILLEGAL.
Big difference, sitting right there on that tiny little hyphen.


Because what is illegal for me is also illegal for my neighbor or his dhobi. But what I consider to be immoral might as well be a most respected custom in my neighbor’s house, situated right next to mine. 

Welcome to a metropolitan society!


                          Image credit:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/438749188670592822/


So to expect, (or much worse, to support) the government in such crazy endeavors, so as to blow the trumpet against people eating meat is not only out rightly stupid but also giving it unnecessary control over my personal life.
For what if tomorrow comes a government which wants me to only eat meat? If I’d want to open my mouth and rebel then, I better rebel now.
Granted that with our much loved Freedom of choice also come certain responsibilities towards the society but I fail to understand that how exactly is what-I-choose-to-eat interfering with anybody else’s business. What I choose to do within the privacy of my home should in no way be subjected to governmental scrutiny. Because this is exactly how it begins – the taking charge of our lives by the very people we chose to serve us – NOT RULE.
Is anybody else not finding it hard to digest (pun intended) that why suddenly is it upon the Government to decide my menu at home? And why is the government not bothered about the issues that it should actually be taking up? And how easily is the government able to distract us citizens by waving it’s chunchuna of meaningless issues, almost every second day.
And, last but the most unfortunate queries of all, Why do we Indians never know, what exactly to be pissed about?