Thanks for inviting me to share my vegan story.

Although I technically became a vegan about a year back, I believe I was born with vegan sensibilities - very likely gains from a past birth.

I was born in a Bengali non-veg eating family but I never liked to eat meat - either mutton or chicken. I remember lingering on the dining table until everybody had got up and then when nobody was looking I would dump the meat out of the window. When I was caught and scolded for "wasting food" I never felt guilty because even as a child I did not believe that the flesh of other sentient beings was "food" for me.

I also remember hating cow's milk. I always complained of a "smell" and felt irky by the taste. I was scolded for being fussy but I never lost the opportunity to drain out the milk in the sink when nobody was looking.

I left home for my studies when I was 16 (1990) and the first thing I did was to leave milk, meat, fish, and eggs. When I came home once a year for my holidays I would be firm with my family about not serving me meat but would  have to reluctantly take fish, eggs, and milk. When I went back to the hostel, I would be again vegan (that time I did not know the word) for the the majority of the year.

As years passed and I gained more confidence to defy my family, I started saying NO to fish, eggs, and milk. Today my family knows I am vegan and what my vegan ideals stand for and I do not feel under any pressure to consume any non-vegan food when I go home. Or in other words, I am confident enough to withstand any pressures.

I am a spiritual vegan. I am a vegan for the sentient beings, for the Earth. I believe in as you sow, so you reap. You cause pain to other sentient beings, the Universe bring back the pain to you in some way or the other. I firmly believe that the cause for human suffering in the world today is because of the suffering the human race is inflicting on other sentient beings. I can improve my own individual karma through my conduct but what about group karmas? If the combined group karmas are bad, how can I despite of doing good, escape calamity?

Therefore, I engage in vegan education. I want to contribute towards raising the vibrations of this Earth and making them positive, so that we all can live dignified lives without fear - humans, animals, birds, and insects!

I like to engage in positive activism only, I am all pro vegan but not anti anything. I feel love and compassion can change one and all. I have supreme faith in the highest virtue in all humans: compassion!

Peace!

Heylos! 

Here goes my short intro. :)

I am a Sneha too ;p. I have been living in Singapore for almost 5 years now but I sprout from Mumbai. I was vegetarian since birth and I remember being into animal rights since very young (thank god (not really), that my parents told me we were vegetarian because of animal issues and not because of religion). I went vegan in early 2008. The animal welfare group in my university had a screening of Earthlings and I went for it. After watching the documentary, I was like "I will/should do everything I can to stop the horrors' and one of the suggestions at the end of the documentary was to go vegan. It was one of the 'do first, think later' decisions.

What I do in my free time is loads of random stuff. I like watching foreign films, particularly into korean horrors. I like learning new languages. I like drawing henna designs. I occasionally sketch. I also have new found interest in photography. I like reading books. I like sudoku. I am into Kathak. I am an atheist but I find theist and religious people rather interesting (not necessarily in a good way).  I like to solve random coding problems. Thats about it! :)