Mumbai

Eid

vegan

Muslim

As Muslims get ready to mark Eid, the end of the month of Ramzan, not all celebrations inwill include the traditional dishes of mutton biryani and sheer korma. Several Muslims in the city will enjoytheway instead.Being a vegan and ais not an anachronism for many of the city’s faithful residents. “No religion condones killing animals,” explains Rubaina Ali Khan, who turned vegan two-and-a-half years ago. “It is not difficult to be Muslim and vegan.”Sadaa Sayed, who runs a vegan restaurant in Andheri, agrees. “Humans have misinterpreted (religious) texts,” she says. “Sacrifice something dear to you doesn’t mean sacrificing life. There’s a much bigger lesson here that humans have not understood.”Rubaina acknowledges that the first steps in the journey are not easy for everyone. She turned vegetarian around six-and-a-half years ago and it took her another four years after that to turn vegan.She took the decision first after her husband Kunal first saw the inhumane way in which chickens are reared and slaughtered. The couple did more research and found videos that showed the way the dairy and animal husbandry industry actually functioned. “We wanted to be two less people who are harming the environment,” says Rubaina. They first gave up meat and a while later, they gave up seafood too. “We’ve always been crazy about animals,” says Rubaina. “But when we adopted our dog Chloe off the street, it changed our outlook completely.”They faced ridicule on social media and friends even teased them saying, “ghaas poos khaate ho (you eat only grass)” but Rubaina and Kunal remained undeterred. “When you have someone to support you, it is easier. If you are the only one in the family making the change, it becomes difficult.”Aisha Khan, 19, who works in the automobile industry, can relate to Rubaina’s statement. She was not much of a meat eater since childhood but a few months ago, she decided to turn vegan.“My family initially thought I was only following a trend but then my parents supported me and said it is a good thing I am trying to protect the environment,” she recalls. “It was a gradual process for me, especially since it took me some time to give up milk in my tea. But now I use coconut milk instead.”This will be her first Eid since she turned vegan but since she had given up meat more than 10 years ago, she says her mother is used to making biryani with soya chunks for her. What about sheer korma? “It tastes better when it is made with almond milk or soy milk,” Aisha says.Sadaa recalls that she gave up eating meat completely when she was eight or nine years old after witnessing a goat being slaughtered for Qurbani. “But the social conditioning was such that I continued eating chicken,”says Sadaa. “It was later that I came to know how chickens are raised with growth hormones just to kill them later and how there is so much cruelty in ­­­­­poultry industry with chickens being crammed into cages. It’s not natural. The ultimate cruelty is in the dairy industry where cows are repeatedly inseminated artificially so they can produce milk and when they cannot produce anymore, they are sent to slaughterhouses.”By gradually giving up chicken, then eggs and then dairy, Sadaa turned vegan in November 2017. She found an unexpected bonus. “I turned vegan for ethical reasons but I found that I got a lot of h­ealth benefits and a lot of problems I was facing got cured on their own.”That’s what turned the tide for her parents to support her. “I had to go to the doctor every month for acne issues but once I gave up dairy, I didn’t have to do so anymore. That’s when they realised the advantages,” she says.For many years, her family has been distributing free vegetarian food to children on Eid. She has already experimented with making vegan versions of sheer korma and biryani.“There are several mock meats, mainly made from soya, that can be used in a biryani and that give the same texture and taste of meat,” she says. “I use soya milk to make sheer korma, it tastes as good as the traditional recipe.”Rubaina prefers to use almond milk for sheer korma. She too uses fake meats in the biryani. “I use soy-based meat substitutes for biryani and for making masoor pulao,” she says. “The butter I use is handcrafted from coconut and even the ghee is vegan. It is easily available at vegan stores. I don’t feel deprived of anything.”This Eid, these vegan Muslims are doing their bit to protect the environment and ensure the planet stays healthy for the coming generations without compromising on their religious beliefs. As Aisha puts it, “ Boond boond se sagar banta hai. Every step matters.”