The reluctant non-vegetarian

I started eating non-veg because my family did. I loved its taste from the start. Although I faced discrimination for being non-vegetarian back home, when I went abroad I myself felt grossed out when I saw other animals being displayed publicly.

As I grew up further and acquired strong belief systems of my own, I often questioned my non-vegetarianism. My mind told me that beliefs on food are political and religious and nature is such that you will survive only if you consume some form of life and that's what kept me going. Emotions, however would often get the better of me.

Especially when I ended up falling in love with a dog, I’d instantly feel sad and guilty for eating another animal. That often made me think that one day I will snap and turn a complete vegetarian, although it would be very tough.

However, recently I got some plants home. I love the feeling of nurturing them when I water them, clean them, arrange them, admire their beauty and the green they add to my home. I think I fell in love with them too. But thrice, they were attacked by monkeys, pots were broken, mud was out, leaves torn, the plants languishing, screaming to be rescued. Strangely, the sadness I felt within then felt identical to what I felt for the dog earlier. The plants have life too even though they don't have two eyes and hands and legs as me. Now I can give up eating animals but if I give up eating plants too, I won’t survive and I want to survive, am too selfish to not. Thus I'm back to being an unhesitant non-vegetarian.