Liebster Blog Award

A second post of mine in as many weeks which can be classified under "Shameless Self Promotion". Anyways, I am happy and thrilled to announce I received my second blogger award from a dear blogger friend of mine, Alka Narula. Her blog was one of the very first blogs I came across when I joined Indiblogger and I am following her blog ever since. She is one of the most prolific bloggers I know who blogs about a wide range of topics from her beautiful poetry to politics and just about everything which are straight from her heart. And so her aptly named blog Deep From My Heart. I am truly honored and humbled to receive this honor from her. Thank you so much, Alka. :)

Also posts such as these gives me an opportunity to appreciate my fellow bloggers whose work I truly admire. I was bit saddened when I had to leave out a few blogger's names on my previous award post. But I'll try to make up for that in this post. :)

Rules for accepting the Liebster Blog award:

• Link back to the person who gave you the award.
• Pick 5 people deserving of the award and notify them on their blogs.
• Post the award on your blog and spread the love.

Okay, tough job to pick only 5 so I had to add one more, so here are my 6 nominations for the award:

* Divya Palaniappan - Entwined Thoughts - Ready to be Straightened Out! 

* Rajagopalan Ratnaraj - A Beautiful Mind

* Aakash Kokz - Unexpressed Thoughts

* Elvirah - Life is an Art

* Subhorup Dasgupta - Subho's Jejune Diet

* Serendipity - Little Moments of Bliss

Congratulations to all of you, very deserving indeed. :)

Killing Animals for Food - Can Meat Eaters be Genuine Animal Lovers?

23 million chickens are killed for food in the U.S. every day.
Image Courtesy: www.omg-facts.com

This thought has been eating me since a long time; can meat eaters be genuine animal lovers? Can the meat eaters even call themselves animal lovers? Isn’t it hypocrisy - On one hand you love animals and on the other, you eat them? Is it ethically and morally right? Is it ethically and morally superior to not eat meat (as compared to eating it?) I am nobody to tell anyone to change their eating habits just because I find it offensive. I am also not qualified to give a lecture about ethics and morality about eating meat. But having said that, there is absolutely no justification of killing animals for food just so humans could lead a healthy life at their expense.

Even if eating meat is limited to beef, pork, or chicken - a meat is a meat. And in my personal opinion, people who eat meat have no right to call themselves animal lovers even if they love animals and actually care for them. If you call me a hypocrite for judging you based only on your eating habits, then I am a hypocrite. I have been a vegetarian all my life and I am proud of the fact that my love for animals is pure and unconditional.

I know this argument has been going on for ages now. On one side the animal lovers/vegans think everyone should abstain from eating meat and accept vegetarianism in their life, and there is absolutely no excuse for killing animals to satisfy our taste buds. On the other hand, the meat eaters, some of whom might be animal lovers too, say, there is nothing wrong in eating meat unless the animal which was slaughtered had a “good” life. Meaning the producers of those animals gave the animal a good decent life and a quick death. If the animal has been bred, raised, and nurtured very well and has had a very good life, does that make it ‘okay’ to kill it so that humans can have a healthier meal? I absolutely do not buy crap like that. The thought of cruelty to animals breaks my heart and fills it with anger. In my opinion, whether the animal which was slaughtered had a good life or whether the animal had lived in extremely inhumane conditions before meeting its death, there is not one good reason that would justify killing of animals for food.

Image Courtesy: www.CartoonStock.com

There is a counter argument to this. Some might argue that if we abstain from eating meat and accept vegetarianism just because we don’t agree with killing of animals for food then we are also preventing the animal to be born in the first place. The animals which are killed are not just killed for food, they are bred, raised, and nurtured before they are killed for food. So in that sense we are actually preventing an animal to be born and have a good but short life. If that is the case then I say it’s better not to be born at all.

I know after reading the previous sentence, some of you might be thinking, “What kind of an animal lover is he, who is okay with an animal not being born instead of the animal having a good decent life, albeit short?” or “The animal has to die someday, so why should it not the live a good life rather than live in inhumane conditions and die a painful death - isn’t that cruelty to animals too?.” I do understand that and I am in no way saying, let the animal live a pathetic life rather than having a short but decent life before it is put to death for food. All animals deserve a better life and we don’t have any right to take that life away from them just so we humans can lead a healthier life. You can still lead a healthy life without eating meat. Also, the animals that are being bred and raised and later killed for food, are they given strictly grain based food? Actually they are not entirely grass-bred. So to breed and raise these animals we are in turn killing other animals to feed them. This is absolutely unjustifiable. You might come to your own conclusions about my love for animals but I will still stick to what I believe.

A picture speaks a Thousand Words
Image Courtesy: Google Images

Just so my opinions wouldn’t sound completely biased because of my love for animals, I will try to look at this issue from a different perspective. Some of us vegans/vegetarians are unmindful of the fact that there are animals getting killed during the production of crops as well. Small sentient mammals like rodents, rabbits, prairie dogs are being killed by tractors during the production of crops. Their lives are as precious as the cows, pigs, and chicken that are slaughtered. So how does it allow the vegans/vegetarians to take the higher moral ground by not eating meat whilst animals are getting killed during crop production too, albeit the number of animals killed are incredibly low during crop production as compared to harvesting raw meat and killing animals for food. Vegetarians can at least console themselves by saying they aren’t actually consuming meat but they are indirectly responsible for the killing of these sentient creatures too. 

So does this mean, animal lovers who eat meat or people who just eat meat in general, and vegans who are animal lovers and do not consume meat are “distinguished” only by the number of animals killed during each process - that is, during killing of animals for food and during crop production.

Does this mean both animal lovers who do not eat meat and animal lovers who do eat meat, are not genuine animal lovers because animals are getting killed either way?

So where does this leave the argument? Can meat eaters be genuine animal lovers? The number of animals that are getting killed are much less during crop production, so isn’t that a good enough reason to relinquish meat and become a vegan/vegetarian? Just on the compassionate grounds and for the love of animals we can safely say the choice is grain and not meat.

I am not going to get into anymore statistical facts to prove whether the choice is grain or meat. But I found some interesting take on both grounds and if you are interested please go through the links below and make your own choice. I do know the verdict regarding this issue is very divided and from my research I can say that the people who think it is morally acceptable to kill animals for food are more as compared to people who are completely against killing of animals for food.

But I will stick to my personal opinion, meat eaters can never be genuine animal lovers. Feel free to disagree.

P.S.

Image Source

Sources:

The Slaughter of Animals for Food

Why Animal Lovers Should Eat Meat

Animals Killed during Crop Production: Not as Many as You Think

The Versatile Blogger Award

I am really excited and happy to receive my first blogger award from Divya, who blogs at Entwined  Thoughts - Ready to be Straightened Out!. I am really honored to receive this recognition from an experienced blogger like her who has very good research and analytical skills which shows in her posts.

The Versatile Blogger Award rules:

1) Add a picture of the award in your post.

2) Thank the award giver.

3) Choose 15 other bloggers to pass the award to and let them know that they have been nominated.

4) Share 7 random facts about you.

Here are my nominations for The Versatile Blogger Award. They are my favorite bloggers whose work I really admire:

* Sujatha Sathya - Conversations

* Saru Singhal - Words

* Deepak Amembal - Mumbai Daily

* Joshi Daniel - Joshi Daniel Photography

* Christy Gerald - My Kitchen Flavors - Bon Appetit!

* Alpana Jaiswal - Motifs on the Wall

* Hariharan Valady - Valady Views

* Maliny Mohan - Chasing Passions

* Deepak Karthik - Whatever It Takes!

* Leo Paw - BigBitz

* Rajesh Prabhu - India Travel

* Alka Narula - Deep From My Heart

* Seema Sharma - Seema's Art Corner

* Varun Porwal - Inspirational Daily

Seven Random Facts about me:

1) My SHAKIRA is my soul mate, she means everything to me. I am spiritually married to her. I will celebrate our 11th Anniversary on the 2nd of Feb which also happens to be her Birthday. My love for her is unconditional, truthful and loyal with no expectations. My love for her is pure in its purest of forms. (It doesn't matter to me if this sounds childish and immature to other people. I have never cared about what people would think about this and never will.) 

2) I am the greatest fan of Rahul Dravid. Enough said.

3) In school, I have won the award for Best Handwriting almost every year (except for 5th Standard). 

4) I am Overweight. Not because I eat a lot, I bet my cats eat more food than me. But because I had suffered two major health issues in the past, first one in 1998 and the second one in 2010. Both happened in the month of April, exactly 12 years apart. On both occasions I had to endure excessive medication and all sorts of tablets due to which I had gained a whole chunk of weight. Whenever I have had any health issue, the only side effect has been excessive weight gain and nothing else. :(

5) I am very good at remembering dates and years. If the date is of any significance to me personally or for my friends and loved ones, I would certainly remember the date and the year as well. 

6) I Love Cats. Well that's no secret. Anybody who has been a regular reader of my blog or know me personally would have guessed at least 3 out of the 6 facts so far.  

7) I am an Eternal Fighter. Nothing ever happens to me in the conventional way. I always have to fight my way to earn the smallest of things which most others would get it on a platter. I have fought my way through all my life and I don't expect that to change in future.

My Love for Cats seriously Tested

My baby Achilles sitting on me

My love for Cats is purely unconditional and unmatched. I have loved all my cats as if they were my children. But few days ago, that theory was put to some serious test. It made me question myself whether I am actually a lover of cats and animals in general, whether my love for them is real or not.

Few days ago, that is on the morning of 18th Jan at around 05:45 I heard the meows of kittens just outside my door step, near the front gate. My Mom had already woken up because of the meows (Even she loves cats as much as I do), and few minutes later I woke up as well. It was still dark and when we turned on the lights, we saw two tiny kittens of ginger color of about 5 to 6 weeks old, obviously scared and confused, calling for their mama. We figured out that someone knew that people love cats in this (our) house so they must have dropped off the kittens at our door step hoping we would definitely take care of it.

Minutes after they came to our house, feeling cold and scared. Resting for now.

So I tried to slowly invite them into our house by providing them with some milk. They were very scared but somehow made their way in the house. It was damn cold outside as well. First couple of hours I tried all the tricks to make them feel comfortable, usually it works very well but they decided to take refuge under the cot for now. The whole day they were screaming, even though we understood their situation, it became unbearable even for my mom who is such a huge lover of cats. In the meanwhile one of them decided that the area behind the Television set was the bathroom and decided to poop there. My mom silently cleaned it; I didn't hear a word of anger or disgust from her. I knew she was getting tired of it already. At the end of the day my mom was very tired and so was I, trying to control the kittens and make them go to sleep.

After a few hours both kitties felt a little comfortable and decided to take a nap.

The following day we decided that at least we should give them up for adoption, mom asked me to post an online ad about it. I wasn't willing to let either one of them go, wanted to keep them both. But already there was some tension among the only cat still with us from Alicia's descendants, named Zorro which is 10 months old now. So Zorro didn't like the fact that there were intruders in the house and started hissing at them, and the fiery kittens actually returned the favor by hissing back at him. This went on for a while; my mom has had enough at this point. So I asked my best buddy Rajiv, who is also a cat lover to adopt one of them. So he came to our house and decided he will take the female kitty (the other one is male). I felt gutted to separate the kittens but we had little choice at that point. So we got a basket ready, trying to make the kitty as comfortable as we can, placed the kitty in it. I sat pillion to my friend who was riding the bike with the kitty in the basket I was holding. It was a 25 minute journey but the kitty was so scared, it constantly kept meowing throughout the ride, even though I did my best to console her. Her screams broke my heart. But 4 days later, which is today I hear she has become pretty comfortable in their home.

The last time both kitties were together. Enyo on the left and Achilles on the right.

Meanwhile, when I came back home the other kitty was still screaming as he wanted his sister back. My mom has been consoling him for a while but to no avail. He wanted to get out of the house, constantly scratching the front door, asking us to open it. This is when I made the biggest mistake, almost sinful. I let the kitty go outside thinking I would follow him and bring him back again. Thankfully there were no dogs around. But as soon as I let him go, he ran into those drainage pavements, I tried to keep up with him from the outside, he had gone some 50 meters away from the house, nearing the end of our block. I was afraid he might stumble on to the road where the traffic is slightly heavy, even though it was not a main road. I kept calling for him from the outside; he would respond with meows but would not come out. This continued for the next 10 minutes and then he came out and hid under a stationary car. I tried to persuade him to come out, he finally came out but started running on to the road, I tried to grab him but he bit me on my index finger and scratched both my hands. I was bleeding and he again went back under the drainage pavement. I came back home dejected and furious at my self for my stupidity for letting the kitty out. My mom was nursing my wounds; I was almost shattered because I thought I would never see that kitty again. My mom was consoling me, saying he would come back on his own. Half an hour later I went in search of him again, I could see the pavement where he went under from the main gate of my house, I saw him at the same place where I had left him earlier, still screaming. I called him, and this time he came running towards me after he saw me and ran straight in to the house. I felt so happy and relieved at that moment. I would have never forgiven myself if something would have ever happened to that kitty. Finally he is home and safe and since the past few days he has become very comfortable with us. But still there is some tension with the kitty and Zorro; hopefully they would get along in the coming days.

As he was so brave and courageous I have named the kitty Achilles, in honor of the brave Greek King and the other kitty's name as Enyo - Twin sister of Achilles in the Greek mythology.

But that incident really made me question my love for cats and animals. For now, I am really happy as I was in some way responsible for those two kitties getting a home for themselves and assured that they would be taken care of really well.

All's well that ends well. :)