There was a cute little girl, 8 years old named Kittu in the village. Her family was poor. All they had was a goat and a cow for livelihood. They used to sell their milk. The girl loved the goat very much, she named her Sita, relating to the ramayan story her grandmother used to recite to her. She used to feed her, milk her, take her out in the evening. Eventually, she got very attached to her. Everyday, Kittu kissed her goat before going to the school and would return running happily hugging the goat.
Seeing this, her father once jokingly said "itna mat pyaar kar isse, bakriya jyada nahi jeeti, ek din mar jayegi ye". Kittu at first couldn't get this. She argued "kyu maregi, mai itna khayal rakhti hu iska". The father did not say anything thinking she is too young to understand.
Time passed and Sita, the goat gave birth to two kids one male and one female. they were very cute. Kittu adored them. She played with them all day. Her father thought if she gets too much attached to them too, it will be very difficult to sell the male kid as he is of no use to me.
He made a deal to sell the male kid to one of the butchers provided he would never let her daughter know about it. The butcher agreed.
One early morning he took out the young goat and sold it to butcher's shop. Sita, the mother sensed something unusual and she became restless. But she was tied and what afterall she could've done!
When Kittu got up and as usual she went to feed the goat family. Finding, one kid missing and Sita, the mother crying. She ran to look for the kid. She searched everywhere in the house but couldn't find him. Then She rushed to tell her father. Her father said pretending a worriedness on his face "Beta, maine to poora gao chhan maara subah se, par vo mila hi nahi, Pata nahi kaha chala gya."
Without thinking for a second the girl ran in the entire village asking every other person telling them about the features of her goat. Kittu kept crying all day. Her father thought its just matter of time it would hardly take a couple of days and everything would be fine.
Her father tried to pacify her "beta mai dusra le aaunga, isse bhi achha".
to this, Kittu said innocently with tears in her eyes "papa, mujhse bhi acchi koi beti dhundh lo, jo itna pagalo ki tarah na roye..!!".
The father was shocked to hear this from her as she was just 8 years old. He understood the gravity of her pain. But he knew that nothing could be done now as the butcher had already sliced the goat and sold its meat to customers.
The father now tried to make her child understand the real reason. He said "Beta agar wo kahi nahi bhi jaata, to bhi hamare pass kab tak rehta"
"wo bakra tha, kabhi dhoodh nahi deta, hum kya karte uska ?"
Kittu couldn't understand this logic and asked in return "kya matlab papa, to hum kya karte uska ? usko bahar to nahi fek dete".
his father said "nahi, jinko iski jarurat hoti hai, use bech dete hai"
The girl thought that there are so many kind people also who would buy and keep them despite the fact that few people just want to get rid of the male goats.
By now, she had stopped crying and then asked her father
"wo kya karte hai inka, matlab ye doodh to dete nahi"..
The father was now caught off guard. He did not know how to answer this. However, with a heavy heart he stated the truth "beta, in bakro ka meat logo ko pasand hota hai, to wo kharidte hai"
Kittu now just couldn't hold her emotions for her cute kid. She started crying uncontrollebly. She just couldn't accept the fact that the goat by now might have been served to someone's plate. She abhored all people who ate meat.
It took her weeks and months to lessens her feelings for him.
Fast forward after 10 years. she was a smart, intelligent and bright student. Being good in studies , She had managed to get a scholarship in the nearby town's college. In her college, there was a debate competition organised on "Vegetarianism". She was to speak for the motion.
She always wanted to convince people how meat eating is not good. She had prepared all her points to counter every argument that could arise to support non-vegetarianism. She had collected world wide statistics for health issues, deforestation and natural vegetation depletion for commercialising the animal farming industries. How 3/4th of the amazon forests in south africa has been cleared up to grow pastures for animals so that these animals could grow in number. How their over -production has led to extinction of rare species in savaana or other major grasslands.
Kittu heard everyone's argument about how meat is healthy and is the only source of major protiens and how these animals are somewhere related to natural tendency of food chain.
Now it was Kittu's turn to speak. All she could now think was the incident that happened 10 years ago. Everyone had expectation that Kittu will mesmarise everyone by her points to counter all arguments.
She stood up. She was silent for a while. Looked at the audience. She had tears rolling down her eyes, yet she smiled and said in low tone "Thank You everyone for giving me this opportunity.. I have all the points to state how in no way, eating meat is humane or healthy or protein building or a million benefits which few of my friends here stated, but I don't want to repeat and tell you the things that you already know, yet are not willing to accept"
"I don't want to make you emotional by saying how killing any creature for satisfying your taste buds is cruel and all that.."
I would rather leave you all with one thought.
"These animals cannot speak any languange, cannot think rationally, cannot fight with us, cannot make us realise our oppression like Gandhi did, cannot put any point here in this debate in support of their life"
"But they understand love, the understand fear, they have instincts far better than us, they never judge us, they are emotional fools", "You can call a dog by showing a roti.. he'll come waging his tail and then you can slice his throat, yet the next dog would come even if you do not show roti and just call him with love"
"I am just trying to be their voice, that please eat something else, and let them live, waise bhi wo jyada nhi jeete..!"
"Thank You"
