She – Meat is non veg.!
Me – yeah! But you shouldn’t ignore the fact that I eat dead meat!
She – Dead meat?
Me – Of course! Meat is dead! Else it would be flesh. And I don’t eat flesh! So technically, I eat dead animals and I don’t kill one!
She – You have got the definition wrong, haven’t you?
He – What definition?
She – Meat is edible flesh! Chicken meat, pork meat, mutton meat! There is no human meat!
He – Oh! Come on! Cannibals would beg to differ! I mean, I am not a cannibal! I just eat the bird! No lamb, no pork! Just the bird! (Pause) And fish sometimes! But not from the aquarium, you know!
She – Who would eat fish from an aquarium?
Me – My cat would! But anyway my point is I am a non-vegetarian! And there’s nothing wrong about it!
She – Everything is wrong about it! Inflicting so much pain!
Me- Oh! Come on! Even plants have life! CV Raman has proved it in his experiment!
She – That was JC Bose!
Me – So what! Would a plant’s life become any less important, because JC Bose discovered it!
She didn’t speak for a while! May be, I had won the debate! The waiter arrived at our table and served our orders – Me, some fancy chicken dish and she? May be potato or paneer! What else a vegetarian would eat!
She – No.! Okay! Tell me one thing! Why does pain exist?
Me – Oh Please! I don’t want to discuss religion, philosophy and god!
She – No man.! The science question! Why does one feel pain, when he..
Me – Or she!
She – yeah ok! Why does one feel the pain, when he or she gets injured?
I thought for a while! The question didn’t make sense!
Me – It’s good as asking why a green leaf is green! (Pause) Oh. Wait! There’s a scientific reason why a green leaf is green! Absorbed components of light, reflected components of light and all that nonsense! But hey, the pain thing, I don’t think it has got any scientific reason!
She – Think about it! Cutting your hair or nails doesn’t hurt you! But anything happens to skin, eyes, or you know other body parts, you feel the pain!
I thought for a while.
Me -You know what! I had felt the same when I was in my kindergarten!
She – Good! Anyway, pain is the body’s inbuilt mechanism to alert you! To tell you that something wrong is happening to your body! If you let it continue, you might die! So do something about it!
Me – Well. This didn’t cross my mind when I was in kindergarten! Hey! Nice observation!
She – Thanks! So if you get injured, you might die because of the blood loss, so the pain! Heart attack, same thing! But cut your hair or nail! Your life is safe! So no alert!
Me – Oh! And what about tooth decay? Why does it hurt?
She- the infection could spread to the eye and then the brain and could kill you!
Me – Fever?
She – That’s a slightly different topic! Body temperature increases significantly to kill the foreign bodies! Anyways, the point is if you pluck the leaf, vegetables and fruits, that wouldn’t kill the plant! So, plants don’t feel the pain when we do that!
Me – Who gave this theory, JC Bose?
She – No.! Me!
Me – Then I can disprove it! Let me think of some examples!
We were done with the eating business and the waiter handed us the cheque!
Me – Hey! Tell me one thing!
She – What?
Me – Can losing money, kill you?
“No!” She laughed. “Why?” she asked.
“Because right now, I am feeling a strange sense of pain!” I said looking at the four figured sum on the bill!
-CHAN
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