What makes you vegitarian?

This post is the result of a discussion with two of my collegues.

Days of Salarpuria Soft Zone (SSZ). We used to go for a walk on the big terrace of Wing A of SSZ. Either we used to walk there or go down, walk till Bellandur.

We were walking one day on the terrace. Myself and Das, when even Bikas joined. Three of us were just discussing about something. Always the discussion starts from some small topic, may be a rubbish one.

Things rolled out to carbohydrates and proteins and from that to vegitarian and non vegitarian. One doesn't need a topic to start and stick on to it. It rolls on to something totally unrelated to the started topic and ends up in totally a different one.

Both of them were Non Vegitarians, NV for short. Discussion got heated up. Though I dont recollect the whole conversation, here are a few excerpts. One might find this discussion too immature or too irrelevant. Please put in your thoughts on it if possible.

B : What may be the reason for the brahmanas to not eat non-veg?
S : Tell me why they should?
B : To taste it. Its good to eat it.
S : Is it good to eat non veg by killing them?
D : Come on! don't give me that reason. The so called vegitarians are no better in killing. They kill plants.
S : (After thinking a while) Hey! You can't call it killing. They do not respond. They are relatively dumb. Its better to eat vegitables than killing an animal and eating it.
B : Killing is killing! Right??
S : Come on! Find the difference. Plants do not respond when you kill them.
B : How do animals respond?
S : They cry. Blood gushes outa their body.
D : FYI, plants do have their own kinda liquid for their growth. They do respond in all ways. Only thing is that they are immovable. Only difference between animals and plants is that animals can move but plants can't.
B : Plants do have life right? Don't you agree?
S : Yes I do. We Indians worship plants. We cut plants only for food only when it is necessary. We grow more plants than you breed animals for eating purposes. The degree of selfishness is less when compared among them.
D : Lemme give you another example for the response plants give. Play some heavy metal song continuously near the plant. It will die within a day or two. Play some Indian Classical music, You'll find it growing in a faster pace in a month or two.
S : All those facts I do agree. What I strongly oppose is the cruelity in killing an animal.
B : Killing a plant in that sense is more cruel. You are killing a helpless creature where as we are killing something which can help itself by running. There are chances where it can escape.
S : Somehow I don't buy the idea that killing plant is a crime. There should be a valid scientific reason behind preferring to have plants than animals.
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Went on and on and on...........

Meanwhile there are few theories which Ankur has pointed out in one of my posts' comments wherein people used to have meat (Beef) even in India. There might be proofs to it but I haven't verified it yet. Though there are also rumors that Hinduism bought the idea of vegitarianism from the Jainism. Dunno how true it is or how credible it is? ( Might be a story wound by jains to have an upper hand over Hinduism). There are some jains who don't even have vegitables like carrot, onions, potatoes( Those are roots ) so that it is eaten by earth (Enjalu in Kannada)

Just a few weeks back, an idea struck my mind which would have been the probable reason???!! Plants do not excrete something which is rejected by humans. They breathe out oxygen at day times and apart from that, I don't see anything rejected by plants. ( Don't tell me leaves n fruits).
When compared, animals do excrete. This might also be one of the major reason behind not having meat.

Regarding the killing of animals and plants, it is only a century before that we(Indians only) scientifically proved that Plants do have life in them. Though the ancient people would have known this, they used to worship plants( We get lots of evidence in puranas where people used to worship trees and plants). Even if we don't consider that ancients wouldn't have known this, we considered that plants do not have life and having them is no cruelity. (This point is just for justification purposes)

Do pour in your valuable comments on this topic while i find some other better topic soon.

24 hour Puncture Service

This was one of the posts I was planning to write since almost a year. Just saw one such number in one of my friends phonebook and thought of writing it now.

Way back in 2006 May or June, there comes a person to our office asking people to become a member of a service his company provides. The service being, In case our vehicle got punctured anywhere in India @ any hour of the day, they would come to us within half an hour(be it any location) after we call them, cure the puncture, (for a reasonable amount, say 20 Rs I guess per puncture, I don't remember). Registration would charge 100 bucks.

Many of our collegues opted for it so did Jagga. I didn't go for it since I don't own a vehicle. We thought it is a plan to subscribe. He gave him a visiting card and disappeared.

It was Cricket World cup ODI 2007 I guess. Myself and Jagga were heading our way back home after a day's job. We left our office by 11. Was a tiresome day. As you would hardly find any traffic at that hour, we were at hebbal flyover by 11:30 when the misfortune started.

We just climbed down the flyover to the side of Yelahanka. I was terrified by the shaking of bike handle. It was vibrating @ 6 Hz per second. Hehe! Sorry to bring in frequencies. I was wondering why Jagga was doing this when suddenly a car passed through us and Jagga was striving hard to find a balance. Those were the days when the Bellary road was under construction and the brige kinda thing you get just after the flyover was narrow and it was a two way where it is one way now.

He somehow got some balance and brought the vehicle to a haltjust near the bridge(Where now many Dagaars stand). We just found that the bike's front tyre was punctured.

I should mention Jagga's memory. He recollected that he had opted for the afore mentioned service almost instantaneously since we got to know that we had a flat tyre.

He called the number which he found on the visiting card given by the agent of the puncture service. There were two numbers on it of which both were not answering any calls. We tried some 5-10 times to find the same reply. He was furious. Was complaining about the service and was mentioning about lodging a complaint to the consumer court( Which he didn't do!)

It was 3 kilometers from my house. We dragged the bike on the flat tyre till Kodigehalli meanwhile Jagga had called one of his friend Resalath who joined us in Kodige halli. On our way we were searching for a puncture shop at that hour. You hardly get them. We searched in petrol bunks which were closed by 11 o' clock. They suggested some places which were like mirages in the desert. We spent almost 1/2 an hour to search for the shops when I suggested him to park the vehicle in my house and go home with Resalath.

Well it was 12 when we reached my home after all the fuss. Resalath took Jagga home and the next morning, my father had got some mechanic to get the vehicle repaired.

So, just think as many times as possible when joining any such service. Join only if you are confident.

Hope Jagga writes his experience on this episode in his blog or in the comments section of this post.

=)