“Veganism is not only about food. It is a life style where you see all species as equal. This includes avoiding animal based products from one’s life,” explains Mini Vasudevan, animal rights activist. She has been a vegan for the past nine years. “Till my early 30s I was not aware of the cruelty involved in consuming diary, eggs and honey. Once I was, I let go animal-based products. It took me 15 years to make a shift from being a vegetarian to a vegan,” she says. Mini is one of the growing tribe of Vegans in Coimbatore.
But going Vegan is a work in progress she says. And there are others with her who are on the journey and Mini organises a pot luck once a month where they meet. “It is an informal get together. The participants bring food and talk about their journeys into this lifestyle. We also share recipes.” The popularity of a Vegan lifestyle is increasing she says as from just 10 members in this group in 2016 they are now 40 and growing, going by the new faces that turn up for the potlucks. Mini vehemently denies the charge that a vegan lifestyle is expensive. “It is not true. Most of the traditional South Indian vegetarian dishes we are used to are vegan. And the dairy based ghee, milk and curd can be replaced with plant based alternatives. In fact a litre of peanut milk produced at home is cheaper than dairy milk. A 100 gm of peanuts cost ₹10 and it is enough to make one litre of milk. Of course, there are expensive alternatives too, but going for it is a choice.”
The restaurant industry has also warmed up to the idea of including vegan dishes to their menu. Four Cups Restaurant in R S Puram that serves North Indian, Pan Asian and continental dishes has done so. “We had a vegan food festival in October. The response was good and we decided to retain the dishes,” says R Arun Kumar, director of the restaurant. They now serve 15 dishes including starters, main course and desserts. “We use nut milk as an alternative and tofu instead paneer. Even the non vegans are keen to try out these dishes. I hope to bring up the number of dishes to 50 soon,” he says. Aravindan S of Vijay Sweets, the first exclusive vegan sweets store in the country, sells 10 varieties of sweets and 45 kinds of savouries. He used to be a non-vegetarian and turned vegan overnight five years ago after watching videos of animal cruelty. “My family was in the sweet business for the past 35 years. When I took over the business, I decided to sell only cruelty- free products. It took me six months of trial and error to come up with the recipes. I use milk extracted from the seeds of cucumber, pumpkin, cashew nuts and coconuts,” he says. He has also recently launched a vegan brand of ice cream made with coconut milk.
