Rita's life as a Vegan!

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Let me tell you a story about my friend, let's call her Rita. So Rita recently went Vegan!
That's right! From a very fish and chicken loving Bengali straight to ----> Vegan. If you don't know what vegan means, here is a definition from the internet :

                   
So, basically, she stays away from animal products. Rita doesn't eat meat, fish or any diary products. Reason? Ethical. Watched a documentary called "Vegucated" and went Vegan, cold turkey! Not a lot of people can relate to this and  she ends up having fun conversation with people, trying to  "vegucate" them . Here are a few examples :

Friend/ Collegue:  Hey I'm throwing a dinner party this Friday! You should come. Any food allergies I should be aware of? Or anything you avoid eating?
Rita: Umm, actually I don't eat meat, fish or diary.
Invitor (is there such a word? Who cares!) : What? Why?
Rita: I'm vegan!
Invitor: oh! (sad and concerned face). What do you eat, then ? How do you get your protein? Can you drink?

First thing that comes to Rita's mind : Drink!!??!! What are you serving at this party?

But Rita is always nice and  ends up trying to explain the 5 Ws : Who What Where When and Why! And also along with the explanation she loses her invite to the next party, just like that!

The most hilarious interactions are with her uncle back in India

Uncle: Okay so explain this to me again. You are what?
Rita: Vee- gan! 
Uncle: Vegan?? So no animal products?
Rita: Yes, Jethu (timidly)
Uncle: Okay so you can eat fish right?
Rita: No, I don't eat fish anymore.
Uncle: What?? Why?

Jethu almost has a panic attack on the phone. He probably has no idea what to feed her next time she visits. Because according to the Rule # 1 in "How to entertain guests: Bengali Edition" You HAVE to overfeed your guests - how else can you show you them you love them?

 "Arektu ne" (take some more) comes the request when Rita is generally working on her third helping
- Na, na pet bhore geche (No, thanks I'm full)
- Really? Naki ranna kharap hoyeche? (Really,  or is it my cooking that sucks?)

Yeah so she is alienating her family and losing friends fast! But she is determined that the world will change one day and people will see things from her point of view. She will be able to go to restaurants and will not have to timidly murmer she is "Vegan"!
She will not try to hide the fact she is Vegan from people, dreading the half an hour long conversation that generally follows.. trying to explain her food choices..

She has decided to follow Gandhi's words:

                 " Keep Calm and be the Change you wish to see in the world"

Okay, that wasn't all Mahatma Gandhi, that was Mahatma Gadhi + some very intelligent person's .jpg image that came up on google search!

Okay, can I tell you a secret? I have no friend called Rita!

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Today is finally my some day!

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Okay folks!

Here is my "this is my someday"  take 2! First of all I should start with a disclaimer : I did not come up with the name Maach Mishti and more! It is a Bengali film I watched some time ago and really liked.  I also thought that this really "fits" with what I want to write about. I'm a bangali girl ( don't like "bengali" or the term "bong", but I don't know how else to write bangali there is no "chondro bindoo" in English unfortunately.) who wants to talk about Mach( fish) , Mishti ( sweets) and more.

So what exactly is this blog going to be about?

 Here I'm going to talk about the movies I like watching and will give you my my thought about the movies I have watched. Yes I'm no movie expert and people in the film industry hate critiques, but hey.. I'm an ordinary girl, part of the audience and I'm simply telling you if I like it or not. If you don't agree with my thoughts, I'm okay with it and I will agree to disagree.  So I like Bangla movies - Kolkata ones. I haven't seen any amazing Bangladeshi movies yet, but I am open to it. I especially like the movies that are modern and not a musical that have actors that suddenly turn into politians and compare being in politics with being raped!

I am a huge fan of Parambrata Chatterjee. Why? His natural acting and his very South Calcutta thing he has going on. I can't really describe it. But no matter what he is portraying I can relate to it. I think if I ever meet him, I will have no issues striking up a conversation and start addressing each other as "tui" and I just know we will have a lot to talk about.. starting from phuchka to Shinghi Park er pujo to Patho Bhavan vs. South Point. So I try to watch every movie he is in :) .

I like Hindi movies too. I am a big fan of the actor Amir Khan and the superstar/businessman Shah Rukh Khan. I love analyzing his marketing his shrewd business and marketing strategies and I respect him for that. His movies, I'm sorry to say don't appeal to me any more.

My guilty pleasure is watching Karan Johar's Koffe with Karan and Zoom- isko dekho. Are they pointless? Yes, absolutely! But do I spend hours watching and analyzing it? Yes absolutely! I love it but feel guilty admitting to people that I do it! I sometimes feel like I am getting to see the real person, through how someone answers a question in an interview - although everything is probably is scripted. But I like to think that - don't take it away from me :P

 I will talk about food. I'm Vegan, by the way. Bangali Vegan sounds like an oxymoron, I know. But there are still a lot of food that is Bangali but Vegan ( think Jhalmuri, luchi alur dom, muri less muri ghonto.. my ma swears you can make it, lau diye dal, posto... just to name a few).

So, I'm starting this journey today, let's see where I go with it! I'm sure it will be a fun one!