Vegetarian Or Non-Vegetarian? - Vegan? Pescetarian? Or Flexitarian? Or …???

Are you a Vegetarianor Non-Vegetarian? Is a frequently heard inquiry among new acquaintances, athome, at Restaurants and at Parties in order to seat them as per their foodpreference or isolate them into groups at a buffet. Non-Vegetarian preparationsare served separately and with caution as the Vegetarians should not beinconvenienced. Today with Veganism picking up in the west and slowly creepinginto India the problem has become more complex. The popular Vegetarian category– Paneer, Curd, Ghee, Butter, Khoya and honey preparations and many more suchdelicacies are not acceptable to Vegans. So they should be served a differentfood, separately and very carefully. Perhaps to avoid chaos at meals; thepopulation of Vegans and the other Vegetarians in India who do not eat evenroot vegetables such as potatoes, onions, carrots, radish, other roots andtubers is a very small percentage as of now.

I am not sure whetherVegetarianism is picking up in India in spite of large scale news and articlesappearing regularly, explaining the advantages of Vegetarian food and of avoidingNon-Vegetarian food. I am making this comment based on the parties I attend inthe family and friend circles where majority of guests enthusiastically opt forNon-Vegetarian food and from the ratio of Exclusive Vegetarian Restaurants toNon-Vegetarian Restaurants in the Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabadwhich may be 1:100 or 1:150.

As 1st October is “WorldVegetarian Day” and October Month is being observed as “Vegetarian AwarenessMonth” in the West, articles have started appearing locally on advantages ofVegetarianism. In spite of all the canvassing, people may not avoidNon-Vegetarian food altogether but would certainly reduce consumption and beselective, less of red meat and more of poultry and fish; for health reasons.And I fall into this category. I was never a Non-Vegetarian on a daily basisbut a Flexitarian; meaning a Vegetarian-predominantly, having Non-Veg. foodjust on six to eight days a week. Except Beef I am permitted to eat allcommonly available Non-Veg. food and I must say that I relish them.

I have mentioned Pescetarianin the title, which refers to people like most Bengalis who have fish and shellfishbut not meat and poultry. I am not fully aware of more such terminology categorizingfood preferences or should I say restrictions. But from Airline catalogs I knowthat they offer a variety of meal menus like – Moslem meal, Kosher meal, Jainmeal and so on.