How an absolute Newari girl decided to become a Vegan!!

Yeah, a Newari girl and how she decided that one day she would like to become a Vegan. For those who know Newari community is not just about a caste, or a language, it is a lifestyle where Newari cuisines are one of the most talked about subject. People of this community have lists of recipes related to non - vegetarian foods. Barbecued and marinated buffalo meat is served as a special delicacy during special events, festivals and social gatherings. People dig in straight to this item when a plate of samay baji is served, that means for the majority of people, chhoila ticks as the favorite among all other items. People ask me most of the times, based on the community I belong to and numbers of social gatherings filled with the multiple non- vegetarian dishes in the kitchen, how can you think of becoming a vegan and actually doing it?

It was totally easy. Ditching dairy products, not getting tempted by the smell of an omelette your friend is about to eat, choosing not to say yes to the different flavors of ice-creams when the rest of your clan are savoring every bits, they are not too hard to accomplish. The only things you need to feed yourself are couple of documentaries that shows extreme level of violence and exploitation to the animals in factories around the world.

Aah Ah. Only if that was easy, do you think there would be climate activists advocating in the streets to encourage people to go vegan? 

Not to discourage anybody, but to let you know that it needs a lot of dedication, compassion, hard-work (yes diligence) to think about changing your diet for the possible lifetime.

My work environment and passion as a climate activist

In 2018 I joined Himalayan Climate Initiative in one of the position where the nature of my work required me to engage with young people educating them on climate change and inspiring them to take climate smart action through their profession, hobbies etc. 

Going to work was a journey of learning whole about environmental problems that exist globally. Most of the times the list of our environmental problems and the challenges to act upon the solutions would overwhelm me. For all the time I had not talked to my friends in the online platforms, I would exhaust myself by thinking that we are on our way to doom this world. 

At the same time, meeting many young people like me during work lifted me up from such miserable state of mind. And many of us believed, rather than only calling out the corporate, we can feel better by making individual choices on our daily lifestyle. And among them going for a vegetarian diet or vegan was one of the challenging and quite significant choice we could make as an advocate of climate action. There was one of the seed of motivation I buried on my warrior mind to stop worrying. 

Cookie

As I meant I was aware of the impact meat industry has on the global climate change. The more I knew the more my conviction to start adopting plant based diet became stronger each day. Honestly speaking, that was not enough. So what got me going? Cookie!

I am not talking about a cookie cookie, but here I am talking about my Cookie, a dog who has been living with us since 2016. Despite of all the big figures and scary facts, I did not overcome the fear of letting go of meat in my food habit. Looking back, all I needed in this situation was someone like Cookie.

Cookie made me pursue my vision. Until she entered my life, I did not know that I could love animals more than anything. I merely saw them as a food before, however my POV changed completely after. She was rescued from the streets of Kathmandu by a fellow dog lover. Since, she started living with us, I began worrying about rest of the dogs who lived with less resources out in our communities. With the new lens, I observed pain and suffering of these animals which were challenging to not give any attention. And I would do anything that was in my control and within my possibilities.

In a year of living with cookie, I started working with HCI. The educate programs that I was involved with enlightened me with the logical reasoning I could use every time people started attacking me for my choices later when I became vegan. But again back when I was struggling to make the decision, they were strong enough to help me avoid meat delicacies but deep inside they were not enough to take away my wants for meats, which meant I could go back quickly. 

When I said watching couple of eye-awakening documentaries, every time I saw a pig being strangled to death, an unknown man pulling out wool with full rage, hurting the sheep consecutively, banging them on the floor, a chicken being cramped inside a cage, breaking legs and suffocating to death, a cow watching another cow being hung and violently murdered and knowing that they are next in the line in terror, I could never stop my eyes flooding with tears and could not imagine any similar things happening to Cookie if she was out there in the streets. I believe, that's how I started making connection with all fellow living beings and made no difference between the suffering of Cookie and other dogs or Cookie and any other animals.

I was a vegetarian for about six months. After the constant battle within, I was able to convince myself fully and I declared becoming a vegan in the year 2019. For about four years now, whenever I say I love dogs, I equally care for other animals and would not hurt any of them in any ways. When I say I am a nature lover, I mean that I see every living being as an equal and I would not support any sort of discrimination, violence, exploitation despite of their identity.

This is how I shared four years of my life as a vegan  and living in harmony with a non- vegetarian Newari family. How? If you want to know what it is like to live as the only vegan member in a family like mine, stay with me and wait until I pen my words down again. 

Last few words, I feel so grateful for having a companion like Cookie, who inspired me to make a huge decision of my life. I feel grateful to have her besides me who has inspired me to simply love unconditionally.