“Ane ardho dozen eenda aapjo,” (and half a dozen eggs please), I say to the owner of a provision store near my house in Ahmedabad. I am giv...
“Ane ardho dozen eenda aapjo,” (and half a dozen eggs please), I say to the owner of a provision store near my house in Ahmedabad. I am given six eggs packed discretely in a newspaper bag. It feels like buying sanitary napkins, the exchange is so minimal in words. A fast-food joint right next to this provision store sells mock chicken lollipops. Okay, let me explain. They are made of potatoes but look like chicken lollipops, and ditto the case with kebabs and other items that provide to a vegetarian foodie some comfortable alternative to non-vegetarian food. I mean there’s no dearth of such surrogate food in India, is there?
In my community of Sindhis, those who begin to follow the Radhaswami satsang eat a specific version of nutria-nugget subzi that is meant to taste like mutton but is called Radaswami baadji. This kind of proxy-fulfilment is evident even in mocktails and fruit beer and wine bars that are not wine bars.
My point is that we (from the state) and others (not from the state) may continue to be surprised, mortified even by how the topic of vegetarianism and the prohibitive rules against meat sales and consumption keeps coming up in...
