mosquitoes.
recently, i was in chennai, and in the house where i stayed, they had this tennis racket like instrument, which was basically high power electric grid (for mosquitoes), charged through normal electric plugging.
as it was shortly after the rains, needless to say, chennai was swarming with mosquitoes. i had a ball of a time, swishing away this gadget, - backhand, forehand, sideways and strokes reminiscent of my old cricket days.
overall, i must have dispatched over a hundred mosquitoes to the mosquito heaven.
now, you might wonder what this has to do with vegetarianism?
the question, comes to the killing of living things. mosquitoes are very much alive, and do remind us of their intentions, through a jet like whine dive bomb approach towards our cuticles.
their needs are not much.. less than a drop of blood; after all most of us have between 5-6 litres of the red stuff stored in us, and are capable of constant replenishment.
personally, i had no problem committing those mass murders against mosquitoes.
without any hint of rhetoric, and more with a sense of curiosity, i wonder how those vegetarians, who prize 'life' very much, view my mass assault on the anopholes and its cousins?
it is under these conditions, that i am overwhelmed by those jain monks, who forever keep their mouths closed, lest they inadvertently swallow the smallest of living amoeba.
on a realistic note, i think, it is killing familiar animals to whom we have a sentimental attachment, that drives our behaviour.
even the most ardent modern day vegetarian, i think, would not mind taking a swat or two, at a dog or a snake if it stands in the veggie's path. but it is another matter if the creature involved was a chicken, pig or cow.
then there are the mice... almost all of us have no norms against setting traps for these creatures, and feeding them to the cats.
sometime ago, there was this pet store, which had piranhas in its display window. precisely every noon, a few dozen live goldfish used to be dumped in the tank as food for the piranhas.
this was a popular tamasha and used to attract crowds. till, peta (people for ethical treatment of animals) got into the game, and warned of dire consequences if this was not stopped.
now, for all who don't know about peta: it is an extremist vegetarian society, which has not qualms killing a few humans, to save the animals.
the pet store folks, took the peta warning seriously, and soon enough, the public feeding of the piranhas was stopped.
