Being vegetarian sounds difficult enough in contemporary, fast-food-lovin’, steak-and-potatoes-havin’, pizza-partyin’ America. Being vegan sounds even more difficult.

Being vegetarian at an international school in India- you’ve got your work cut out for you.

So it’s practically a rule that food from a school cafeteria is terrible. And while my school manages to cling to barely edible, their non-vegetarian food is more strongly so. With three counters to one solitary vegetarian counter with immense lines and less edible food, there’s no question about the many, many, many non-vegetarians you’re going to meet.

And the vegetarians miss out on a valuable tool – they can’t use the ‘if you just tried it, you might like it.’ They’ve got to use deception, and guilt, and anger to get their point across.

At which point most people wander away, talking about overreaction.

Non-vegetarians, please, please, please stop making us smell it, and making us look at it. We’d rather you didn’t eat in front of us- or didn’t eat it at all, but if you do, do you have to point it out?

To me, they are animals that you’ve murdered just by creating a demand for it. Eat it for the protein, and glean all the satisfaction you can from it, but don’t draw attention to it, and don’t force us to deal with your stupidity.

A very vegetarian friend of mine has recently made a blog, and once she figures out how to take ‘site title’ off her blog, I’ll tag her here. And I’d like to echo one of her ideals-

You have a choice. And don’t ever forget, you are privileged if you have a choice, that doesn’t just apply to white people. Some people can’t afford organic and healthy food. Some people have families that won’t help. Some people can’t find vegan replacements to food they need.

Make your choice.