Not for non vegetarians

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I associate food with smell. If the house or a hotel smells good, chances are the food there will taste good. When I came to Mumbai and was staying in a Christian hostel, I remember the feeling of nausea at 10am everyday as they started cooking beef. For a pure vegetarian Gujarati girl, it was a culture shock. I had never had people eating non vegetarian on my table for the first fifteen years of my life. So to see pieces of meat in a watery gravy was not a pleasant sight for me. Hostel food was full of coconut in every vegetable and garlic in every dal.At home, we never ate garlic or onions on a daily basis. In Mumbai, my meals had so many new ingredients and then I got used to seeing and smelling that. Even people sucking the bone for the marrow was a sight I had never seen before. There was no religious sentiment involved. I was just so shocked and oh so unexposed.

Stage two was when I joined a five star hotel in Mumbai. For me, the whole hotel was always stinking of food. For years, I couldn't relish my meals at five star hotels. The lobby with the cafe to the 24 hr coffee shop to the Indian restaurant , all were a big no no for me. I remember rushing back to the hostel for my meals. The food just smelt and felt stale to me. Then the leftovers came to the staff cafeteria.
The good part was I was very friendly with the chefs in the hotel. All tea times I would sit with them. They were one happy lot of people, away from the hotel politics. They just made me laugh and never talked food.

Stage three was when I got married to a non vegetarian, the in laws to prove a point would cook non vegetarian food every time we were invited for a meal. I never could cook non vegetarian food. I had to touch n fry fish and clear the bones there. Once I came home from work and my house was smelling of prawns. I ran to the kitchen and saw these pink fleshy things and shells all over the place. I almost died. Cooked food is different but to see it like that was unpalatable.
People still go on asking me about veg vs non veg food. I am questioned why my children don't eat and why I don't cook at home or why my maids can't cook at home. I have to answer if this is religious or personal choice of mine. People sympathize with my husband as if he doesn't get to eat at home. My husband has no issues whatsoever but people do. Will I let my children eat non veg? Why haven't they tried it till now? So on and so forth. I don't have answers and no judgements here. Its just something I do. Do I have to keep justifying?
Now the best part is whenever we go out, I choose and order the non vegetarian food for him. Years of working in the hotel industry has made me a pro at recognizing the good dishes even if I don't eat them.

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