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A Vegan’s Journey from Social Outcast to Cool Kid
Yo climate change — thanks, bro!
It was back in 2011 that I spent Thanksgiving in Chicago with a German friend, while we were on an exchange semester in Cleveland from our respective Indian and German universities.
Chicago was fun — the windy city is truly windy during that part of the year and a couple of days spent there were surely worth it.
Thanksgiving dinner however was a different story. We went to a fancy restaurant where my friend of course had a nice turkey, but I have limited to the pumpkin pie with a rather sorry “oh, poor you, vegetarian dude!” expression even on the waiter’s face.
Since then, it has been the same story in different cities across the world — the weird dude on the table of a group of people enjoying Peking duck in Beijing or a hairy crab in Shanghai or Hong Kong, or a seafood party in Southeast Asia.
Could I just have some veggies with some rice and noodles, please?
Fast forward to today, and have the tables turned or what!
Last week, that same dinner with friends or colleagues ended up being at a strictly vegan joint opened by one of the cool new companies with the plant-based meat stuff.
