“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony” – Mahatma Gandhi.

Dear Climate Healers,

We left Hyderabad for Kolkata without Pareen as she had been called for two interviews to fill faculty positions in two different colleges at Delhi University. Pareen took a flight back to Delhi to prepare for her interviews instead.

We landed in Kolkata just in time to head over to our first event at Ashutosh College, the oldest college in Kolkata. Kolkata Vegan activists had quickly arranged this talk and screening at the last minute after the University of Engineering and Management had canceled our regularly scheduled event.

It takes courage to promote Vegan events in our world today and we deeply appreciate all the institutions in India who have stepped up throughout our tour. We were hosted by Abbinav, Vikas and Lataben at Ubuntu Eat during our stay in Kolkata. Ubuntu Eat also catered the delicious Vegan food for both our Kolkata events.

Early next morning, we did public outreach with Kolkata Vegans at Gate #10 of Central Park, the largest park in Kolkata city. Thousands of health conscious Kolkatans come to the park for their morning walk and Kolkata Vegans have been doing daily outreach outside the gates for over a year. You never know who you can touch and transform during these outreaches.

On a small whiteboard, we wrote,
“I am a scientist from the USA and I think all Bengalis are Vegan. Ask me how?”

As soon as I held up the sign, a lady accosted me,

“Arrrrey, what is this? I am a Bengali and I just had fish and egg omelet for breakfast. How can you say that all Bengalis are Vegan?”

“Would you ever deliberately hurt an innocent animal unnecessarily?”

“Of course, not! I have four cats and two dogs at home. I am an animal lover.”

“Then, by definition, you are Vegan. You are just unaware that you are Vegan when you are eating your fish and omelet. You just said that you wouldn’t hurt a fish or a chicken unnecessarily.”

“Good point.”

We had over a dozen such conversations during the next couple of hours before enjoying a well deserved breakfast of idlis and chutney at the park.

That evening, Techno India, a private university in Kolkata, hosted one of the most well attended events of our tour. Pauline, a Vegan, is the Director of Sustainability at Techno India and she had invited all the decision makers to attend.

After the talk and screening, we discussed structural changes that can be made at Techno India to align it with the reality of our global environmental situation. It is comforting to know that Pauline and Kolkata Vegans will be following up to implement these changes.

We left Kolkata for Delhi with lots of gifts from Madhuja at Vegan Daily, an one-stop online shop for all things Vegan in Kolkata. Please check it out if your home base is Kolkata.

With much love,