“There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”
-President Bush
President Bush was partly right though (last line was obviously not). I saw so many non-vegetarian restaurants mushrooming all over the India, it was nauseating. To make matters worse all restaurants were completely packed seven days a week. I simply couldn't eat any meat there and in-fact I puked when I ate once. Equating better nutrition with meat is complete idiocy when there are so many vegetarian Indian delicacies to choose from. But when economy booms, whatever little meta-cognition we do takes back seat (it's another story that it never flourishes) and most tend to follow the herd. The males in the herd probably equate eating meat with "macho-ness", females horde behind the macho males and morality goes for a ride.
It disturbed me so much that even after coming back here, I am yet to eat meat. Have decided to take it one day at a time and in the worst case, moderation is much better than consoling the conscience. I still look up-to vegetarians and envy them.
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