(wrote this article initially sometime in 2015-16, at the height of tensions about vegetarian and non-vegetarian messes in the IITs.)
A hard to define diet
I have trouble digesting Lactose. So I do not drink milk except in small measures in tea. I eat curd and cheese only sometimes. I do eat ghee in decent amounts, as my main source of ‘good fat’. My home is a vegetarian one, and I have grown as such. As with many Hindus of vegetarian families/castes, I did not know much about ‘non-vegetarian’ foods till I was in school. But since then, as I entered college life, owing to my love for trying cuisines, of relating with the different states of my country and feeling closer to the lives of my friends who now came from various parts of India, I have eaten and still occasionally do eat ‘non-vegetarian’ food – fermented fish paste called Ngari from Manipur, Calamari or lamb starters in a pub, Beef recipes of Kerala, or even the slow cooked meatballs from Kashmir have all been on my occasional list. To top this confused list, I did grow up eating and loving egg but after a bout of jaundice, I have become allergic to it. So in recent years it has been no to eggs but yes to a rare tandoori chicken. Most confusing.
So when people ask me if I am vegetarian or non-vegetarian, I have to stop myself from launching into a long thesis for explanation. I guess, functionally I am on most days a vegetarian who has less dairy products. An oddity; an almost vegan, who sometimes eats some meat.
An eclectic morality
These are of course my personal dilemmas, yet I feel that there are insights here that are worth sharing. They point to the fact that macro debates about diets and morality do not always do justice to the unique biographies of people. This combination of diet that I have developed over the years is not completely random. It emerged as an evolving understanding of what works for my body and my values. I think my diet has a peculiar morality of its own. I do think about both environmental and nutritional concerns too. Totally unrelated to the veg-non-veg maha-debate in India, I try as much as possible not to buy packaged biscuits and chips, though I am very fond of them. Fresh stuff from a bakery or a ‘Hot Chips’ stall, in a paper bag is preferable. I control how much I order food online, as I dislike the use of plastics in packaging and the fact that some poor soul is zipping through traffic and pollution to fetch me my meal. I prefer - especially since I have matured in age - to either eat at home or myself step out to eat. Here too, whenever possible I love to patronize clean but common-man friendly dhabas, perhaps due to my limited pocket but also because they feel good. Surely gourmet cuisine or visits to capitalist Starbucks also happen. But I keep it in check.