Actor turned singer, Nisha Rawal is embarking on a Vegan way of life. She has been a vegetarian all her life despite her family being non vegetarian. She has now decided to push the buck and adhere to a strict vegan regime, gradually. The decision has come predominantly from her love of animals. She has helped a lot of animals find home & care and had even adopted two dogs.
However noble is the task at hand, the follow through is a strict and tedious one. Nisha is not one to start claiming to be a vegan before she really commits to it. She is still on a trial and error mode. She is trying to imbibe a few basics of Vegan life in her daily routine, replacing milk with soya milk & almond milk, paneer with tofu & butter with olive oil.
Being a vegan in India is an uphill battle as the culture is still in nascent stage. Food products that support the life style are difficult to source and the ones available are far and sparse. But, Nisha is not getting deterred. She has also figured out quite a few food preparations at her home itself. At a recent trip to Gangtok she tried looking up for Vegan options.
Speaking about her new lifestyle, Nisha said, “I have been intending to go Vegan for some time now. - ever since I saw the cruelty on cows in factory farms like dehorning and artificial insemination, the calf is taken away from the mother right at birth. Animals recognize each other so they do understand and feel the pain. Right now I am only trying to imbibe a vegan diet and gradually upscale it to other aspects of life. I have also given up on wearing real fur, silk and leather. The major problem, I’m facing is the milk part cause I’m a vegetarian and my intense work out regime demands high protein diet which for vegetarians mainly comes from milk. The advantages of a Vegan diet are undeniable for your physical and mental being but there is more to it. I have always loved animals and the core of Veganism is to oppose this cruelty towards animals. We often don’t pause and think for a moment also, that the milk we drink is actually for the calf, the mother cow lactates for only as long as the calf needs it and we are actually drinking into their share. Many people feel that animal cruelty is subjective but for me it’s absolute.”
She initially started with observing one week of veganism and then gradually managed to crack it for one month. Nisha’s New Year resolution is to stay vegan for 6 months out of 12. She has also connected with various Vegan groups in Mumbai to understand the lifestyle better. Some of her new vegan friends have advised her to do it step by step and adopt a sustainable approach as opposed to a one shot conversion which backfires most times.
It is a known fact that Karan Mehra gave up non vegetarian after tying the knot with Nisha. Now we have to wait and watch if Karan is going to turn into a Vegan as well with Nisha?
