Few days back, I
went to the tailor shop to get my stitched clothes. It is not new in
India; we are made to wait in all places not just because of our growing
population but also due to our reluctance in not doing our duty at the
right time. They told me to wait as they were yet to iron the cloth.
Half an hour passed looking here and there. There were four tailors
at the shop. All of a sudden, a conversation broke out with one of them
asking others, ‘What is needed for a living?’ One said, ‘I need peace
in my life’. To my surprise, second one said, ‘I need the beautiful
salesgirl working next door’. Another said, ‘I need money’. I smiled
and thought to myself ‘Isn’t food the most important thing needed in
life?’
After receiving the clothes, I returned home with deep thoughts in my
mind. Other part of the brain said, ‘don’t think too much, half your
hairs are already grey’. Never mind.
Why should we depend on other organisms for our food? Why don’t we
produce our own food? Why should we kill animals to satisfy our hunger?
Some of you, I’m sure are piping up with the point, ‘even plants are
living organisms and have life, isn’t it equally sinful to destroy them
for our own needs?’
These arguments drag me to my basics. The living things are divided
into two major divisions, the autotrophs and the heterotrophs.
Autotrophs are the living things that produce their own food. On the
other hand, Heterotrophs are living things that depend on other
organisms for their food. As we cannot produce our own food, we depend
on other organisms for our food. In near future, who knows, chloroplast
might have been incorporated into our cell to produce our own food!
It’s natural to kill other organisms for our very survival. Nobody
here can say, ‘I do not harm other living creatures’. Do you think you
can stop your WBC from killing the harmful microorganisms that enter
the body? – Never. When our own life is in danger, it is natural that
we tend to free ourselves from the clutch; it may even include much
destruction process.
I like to classify living organism into four types based on human
consumption, (Though Humans come under animalia, we will have them
separate to better understand the article)
- Plants.
- Domestic animals.
- Wild animals.
- Human.
At the first place, we should know that we target plants and
domestic animals as they are not going to harm us. Food, being a basic
need, there is no other go but to depend on other living organisms.
Man, the highest organism in the living chain, has the advantage to
consume plants and all animals.
Why consume plants and not animals:
Here, I classify living organism based on senses they possess,
- Plants.
- Animals.
- Human.
As far as I remember, plants have the sense of light. Some
plants also enjoy the sense of touch. Animals have the sense of sight,
smell, touch, taste and hear. When compared to animals, human have an
additional sense called the sixth sense.
What is the sixth sense?
Plants and animals have not changed since their arrival. They have
only adapted to the environment. Plants absorb light, fix nitrogen, and
produce their food. When there was no light, they extend to absorb
light. Coming to animals, their main function is to locomote in search
of prey and to reproduce.
Here comes the most important and highly intellectual living thing,
the human. He not only does his basic function. He always does and
thinks more than what needs to be done. We should agree that it has
made life easier for us in one sense without denying the fact that it
has made life difficult for the other living organisms that share space
with us.
Apart from the five physical senses, humans have the mental sense
which is more than just thinking. It makes us analyze – what is right
and what is wrong, how to be social, how to respond, how to overcome a
problem.
Let’s take an example of walking in very hot sun. An animal which is
unable to bear the heat searches and rests in shadow. But when you take
a human, he thinks how to overcome this and uses slippers to walk and
umbrella to protect the whole body. To make it simple, our intellect is
the sixth sense.
Plants and animals have not changed, they have only adapted to the
changes in the environment brought out by natural causes and by human
beings. The fittest are able to adapt, survive and others become
extinct.
We are so selfish and we do not care about the other living organisms
on earth. With our so called sixth sense, we have done everything
possible for their destruction. We kill cockroaches and lizards at
home, but how many of us know about their usefulness. They feed on
insects and keep our home clean. They are also useful scavengers that
clean our filth and excreta, which left uncleaned, will lead to many
diseases. Many of the birds are hunted for their meat. These birds help
us in many ways for our survival. They help in pollination and seed
dispersal. Birds are insectivorous and keep a check on insect
population. There are insect eating bats which can eat 300 mosquitoes in
an hour and also keeps dengue at bay. But these bats are killed by
humans for meat and superstitious beliefs. The fact is “Birds can
survive without humans, but humans cannot survive without birds”.
If this continues to happen, in the longer run, there will only be
one organism in this world – The Human being. Indeed, there are chances
that one human is killed for the survival of another.
These problems are all due to the sixth sense of humans.
Why should one not be a non-vegetarian?
Good bye...
The incident that transformed me is the recent execution of Ajmal
Kasab. Though, he was responsible for the death of many innocent
people, we arrived at no solution by hanging him. Think how much pain
and agony he would have undergone when taken to the death trap.
I can hear, some of you shouting at me, ‘Then what is the solution
for this’. Being idealistic, I do not know the solution but I am sure
hanging is not the right solution. Gandhiji pointed out, ‘An eye for an
eye only ends up making the whole world blind’. Punishment is given to
reform people and to make him a better individual. But practically
speaking, we have no other option other than execution as we had
already run out of ideas on reforming such individuals.
This incident reminds me of my days at Puzhal Lake. We friends go
there to take bath in the weekends. Everyone knew swimming except me.
One day, they thought of pushing me into deep water to make me learn
swimming. I begged, ‘I am happy even if I did not learn swimming in my
lifetime, but for god’s sake; don’t push me into the waters’. They
pushed me and that’s when I realized how terrible the ‘fear of death’
is. In fact, I knew that they would save me, but the fear of death
broke me down into tears.
If you like to experience this fear, avail late night cab from your
office to home. The rash driving will tell you how terrible it is. I
once pleaded, ‘Please be slow, it’s ok even if I’m one hour late to
home’.
I compared the jailing and execution of Kasab with capturing,
breeding and killing of poor animals for their meat. I felt bad and
thought I should not do this. The other thing which hurt me is killing
animals for material gains. To name a few, killing of elephants for
their ivory and killing of rhinos for their horns in Assam. All these
things made me sick.
Plants do not have emotion which animals and humans enjoy. This is
not the only reason for me getting converted into a vegetarian. Even
plants have life. But when we consume vegetables and fruits, we don’t
cut their roots. By cutting their leaves and branches (pruning), we are
doing good for the plants which will make them grow larger and in turn
produces more yield. Cutting of fruits and vegetables causes no
suffering to the plants. If not cut, the fruits and vegetables become
ripe, fall, get decayed by microorganisms, seeds are exposed and they
germinate into new plant. On the other hand, we cage the animals. We
inject growth hormones to grow them in a short time and kill them for
their meat. I also agree that there are some plants that are destroyed
but without any suffering.
There are animals which feed on other animals and plants to maintain
the ecological balance. Unlike humans, they do so to meet their needs
and not for their wants. Why should one be a vegetarian? – Vegetarians
are believed to live longer and more over our parts are not designed to
digest meat.
The sixth sense of human is boasting of making life easier. Yes, but
at the cost of destroying the other humble creatures on earth. We not
only kill animals, but we also kill our own species for the want of
space, material and also in the name of caste and religion which are
created to instill values in human. As told already, time is not far
off where there will only be humans who are man eaters. Hope, we are
not paving way for it.
Let us live and let live by doing our bit.
I know this article is bound to criticism. And criticisms are always welcome as ‘That which does not kill me makes me stronger’
On a lighter side, I wrote this article just to avoid answering the question,
‘Why have you become a vegetarian? Are you trying to impress a vegetarian girl?’
-Kannappan.
