Personal Experience

Personal experience

It was a bright Sunday morning , with broad sunlight warming up the surface of the earth and

the living creatures on it . The chirping of birds and the slow temperate breeze had charged me

up with high spirits . I picked up a magazine and sat on my armchair in my garden . Slowly , the

elements which contributed to the pleasantness of the atmosphere started fading out of my mind

and something else occupied the center stage of my mind , just like the fade ins and fade outs

occurring

in movies . What had entered my mind was a small story , and truly , no other piece of

writing has engrossed me as much as this story had

It was a real life story of a Muslim documentary film-maker written by himself , describing

his own real life experience . He had made a documentary film on the baby chicken from an egg

He did not want to miss even one minute of the process , so he had focused his camera for several

hours on the egg only . Finally , his camera witnessed the breaking of the shell and a live baby

erupting out of it . A baby , so full of innocence and desire to live . The innocence on the face of

the new born baby chicken not only appealed his mind , but touched his heart . So great was the

impact that at that very moment he vouched that from that minute , he would never touch non

vegetarian food . Even though Islam . The faith which he practiced permitted him to do so , he , for

the rest of his life did not touch meat , beef , fish , chicken or even egg preparations

Ever since I read this story , my mind is also not at peace . There is something that bites my

conscience whenever I have a ` tasty ' non-vegetarian dish on my table . A virtual image of a fish

swimming in the free waters or a cow grazing in the green Pasteur or a chicken moving about

freely on her timid legs in a free orchard erupt before me . The desperate sound of an animal

wanting to live , crying out a fraction of a second before being mercilessly killed , haunts my ears

` Do I have any ethical right to eat this dish ' is the question arising from the bottom-most

corner of my heart . I recall my primary school teacher telling me hat a Lion does not kill its prey

unless he is hungry . Do we humans have any right to kill these animals That to for our

stomach ? When so many vanities of vegetarian dishes are available perhaps better in nutritive

qualities than their non-vegetarian counterpart , are we justified in killing animals and fishes this

way ? Have we civilized ourselves or are we still worst than animals

Plenty of questions arise in my mind whenever I am served with a non-vegetarian dish . Since

that day , I have never `enjoyed ' such dishes , and my heart tells me that the day is not far when I

may also give...