Mumbai-based couple Kiran & Arun Bhatia share how a 3 month experiment has snowballed to 3 years and there is no looking back for them.
“In 2008 we got our house remodelled. The aftermath of eight months of breathing sand, cement and dust filled air was that Arun had a severe asthmatic disorder. An 18 month dosage of inhalers and steroids arrested the situation but the condition of heavy breathing still prevailed. In 2015, a casual day picnic to the Gowardhan Dairy farm near Pune revealed the ‘well cared but torturous’ treatment of cows for milk production. This was truly an eye opener. Then a visit to the SHARAN counter at the organic farmers market where we tasted a dairy-free sugar-free cake made us want to know more. A quick insight on the benefits of being vegan and SHARAN’s activities gave Arun new hope of getting rid of his asthma. Our only concern – could a family whose day starts with milk-loaded tea and ends with a glass of milk and umpteen servings of paneer, yoghurt, lassi, basundi, icecreams and other milk- based goodies in between give up all of these, in a jiffy? Tough but not impossible, we told ourselves. No harm in trying for 3 months, we could always go back to our former diet but try we must, I pointed out.
We have always believed that there is no gradual process of ‘giving up’ – it’s either completely in or completely out. We picked a date 24 December, 2015 – our family dinner on Christmas Eve. The table was laden with a host of meat dishes and milk-based desserts. Arun and I simply announced that we were going vegan. Everybody around us had a hearty laugh, my mother-in-law started wondering what to do with the food cooked, but we were adamant. We had crossed one hurdle and we expected many more, but we held on to our decision.
We travelled to the UK for a 2 week vacation and were amazed at the vegan options widely available. Today, after almost three years we have only gained a host of good habits and happily let go practices that were ingrained into us over the years. So now, we experience:
– more energy during the entire day as our body puts less effort to digest what we eat
– less occurrences of asthmatic attacks and are off medicines totally (barring a standby inhaler for emergencies during travel)
– increased intake of raw veggies, fruits and all kinds of nuts
– weight loss by 5-7 kgs
– zero desire to eat meat-based food: we just don’t miss it.
If you were to ask us if we have become 100% vegans and do not consume a drop of milk, I would have to say no, not yet. But we are almost there and will admit that besides eggs, our non-veg consumption is zero and our milk consumption has dropped by 90%. We are constantly on the lookout for vegan options to satisfy our small cravings that still persist but whatever we have achieved till date has made a huge difference to our health. And we are aware that there is no turning back now. Our 3 month trial with so many positive outcomes has convinced us both to accept veganism as our dietary way of life forever.” – Kiran & Arun Bhatia, Mumbai.
