My Story: How did I turn vegan?
Humanist Group Lecture
Series by Vegan Sudesh
As a child, I was obsessed with nature and animals. I could
observe them for hours. From an early age, I was drawn to everything unknown
and inexplicable. It was interesting to know who I am, what I live for, and what it
is all about. The journey of my quest to check up on disparities, which have traditionally persisted in the social structure of India, made me interested
to learn more and more about social science, I wanted to understand people,
feel them, and find out why they act this way, and not otherwise.
Interestingly, right from early childhood, it was things
around, that made me fancier to read books, and magazines and surf around to
understand the world in a better way.
I’m blessed with a beautiful place and tranquillity, no
matter wherever I spent a sizeable time in my life so far. Our beautiful neighbourhood
played an important role in my thirst for learning i.e. ever ending. I had
a great time for whole years of my schooling in my hometown Patratu, an industrial
township flanked by hills covered with lush green trees. It was set up in the 1960s
with Russian Collaboration. The beautiful Patratu valley has lovely S-curves,
swooping corners & hills formed from rocks of the late Jurassic Period valley
very similar to Lonavala.
At a very tender age, I was well aware of many social
things which are the most searchable keywords at search engines in the age of the internet. I was ranked in the list of best-performing students, which is too
without much hard work. While finishing high school, my inclination
towards social sciences was much to talk about in the circle of our teachers and
fellow students, the reason for the same was my tremendous understanding of
subject matters, super memorising skills and record-breaking scores in annual
examinations.
The glimpse of childhood, having my footprints in Veganism a.k.a My Vegan Story.
Being born and bred into a Hindu family setup, merely at the very tender age of my childhood, say like when I was 4 years old, I had witnessed animal sacrifice rituals in the neighbourhood and a few famous temples. In the first incident, my parents took me to a relative's place to attend an evening feast on an auspicious occasion. I saw there a priest along with the entire clan were busy doing a ritual with a baby black goat, they threw up him in a newly constructed water well to test the level of negative energy present there. If he would have died while throwing him deep inside the water, they would have judged the overall construction as inauspicious. Fortunately, he was neither injured nor ends up dying, so everyone was quite happy.
Next, a ritual was about sacrificing the same baby goat, they fed him raw white rice while chanting some Sanskrit Mantras prescribed by Hindu Texts then one held his head, another pulled the trunk and the third one, a mid-aged uncle with a large moustache instantly slit his neck with an age-old sword having sized at 4 feet approx. which were specially kept in many homes as a weapon for protection.
I was in immense pain in the mind with wet eyes as I could not save his life; I was just another mute spectator. But, that day I decided to do something about it, with time I become more adamant about the choice of plant-based foods. Everything became more catalytic in my mind while hearing at the feast that many people were asking for pieces of the dead body of that poor soul. They were brainwashed to follow this cruel tradition, which was used to satisfy their appetite for animal flesh.
After finishing my first honours degree in Economics in 2002, I failed by a very low margin to secure admission at the Reserve Bank of India's backed research institute, IGIDR in Goregaon. Then it was a remarkable opportunity in my life to study & work abroad, as I was awarded huge funds and the title of Ford Fellow (I) for my commitment to social change after clearing 5 rigours stages of recruitment process in the global talent hunt at the age of 22, I was second youngest among 23 socially committed fellow elects, representing India in the list of 22 countries - spanning Asia, Africa, America, Russia, and the Middle East. Further, I invested my academic time in completing a research degree in Economics from East Anglia, MBA (Dip) in Finance from London and a career with a specialization in legal compliance in European Market and visiting World Bank, HQ at Washington DC etc.
All of a sudden entire childhood was a flashback for me while being home away when I discovered Veganism in 2004 during my university's research period while spending time with fellow leaders from 18 different schools of my university in the Students Union's parliamentary board meetings and seminars/events at three campus namely London School of Economics, Cambridge University and University of East Anglia. At that time the entry of Facebook into the social media space provided a platform to connect with large no. of fellow vegans across the world. It was just another turning point for me to switch to a plant-based lifestyle. Owing to my memory, I’ve taken up this change very strongly including 'the global campaign to stop animal sacrifice'. I believe that being vegan isn’t just about a diet. It’s a social justice movement to end the commodified status of animals. It does not matter, wherever you stay or whichever faith you practice, you must not silently support the murder of innocent animals.
To stay updated with my regular posts, recipes and online sessions on plant-based lifestyle, go to my website: vegansudesh.com and/or follow me @vegansudesh at any of your favourite social media platforms.
Vegan Sudesh
The Global Campaign to Stop Animal Sacrifice
facebook.com/stopaninalsacrifice
