Attack of the greens/ Nov 12, 2005

Saturday, November 12, 2005 7:56:00 PM

Permission to reprint or copy this article or photo must be obtained from DNA INDIA.

The attack of the greens

Gayatri Jayaraman

Hira Ratan Manek, a mechanical engineer and spice trader from Kerala took inspiration from Jainism, Greek, Egyptian and
native American philosophies, to develop a method of sun gazing. Since June 18 1995, 68-year-old Manek claims to have
lived purely on the energy of the sun and water with occasional tea, coffee and buttermilk in addition to ayurvedic medicines.
Much researched by medical communities in India and the US, Manek has spawned a following of sun gazers across the world.
While Manek may be extreme, he is indicative of a new breed of food followers that are bringing in a back-to-basics food
movement that has evolved from the manic, panicked vegetarian, plagued by FDA rulings. Tired of agonising over crushed
bone powder he firmly believes makes his chapati ka atta softer, the vegetarian has upped and decided to evolve by develop
his own stream. Whether for religious, animal welfare or plain health reasons, the evolving sects have spread from the by-
now common vegan, to the pesco vegetarian, the paleo dietarian, the rawist, the fruitarian, and the monotheistic instincto,
lacto ovarian, to name a few.
“The food markings and health diets are all fads,” says Laxmi Venkatraman, a school teacher who eats all vegetables partially-
steamed and eats only fruit until noon and after 6 pm, is a little bewildered by the markings on her tea powder, certifying it as
100% vegetarian, “These things make people panic. It’s best to use pure whole grains and ingredients that one is sure of.”
“This panic is unnecessary if one is led by what is right and the truth from the ecological, ethical, spiritual, and religious point
of view,” says nutritionist and fruitarian Vijaya Venkat, who runs the Health Awareness Centre. “All you need is biorhythmic
food, food that is in rhythm with your body and the world around you. Your needs are met by fruits, vegetables, nuts and
pulses.”
Pushpa Subramaniam, a follower who personalised the regime, is a sworn fruitarian. “It is sometimes not possible for me to
follow it all year round, but even with a 50 per cent adherence, no one in my household ever falls ill. When I do, I just lie
down and stick to fruits and that takes care of me. Pushpa propagates these views through occasional seminars or workshops
at the Sri Guruji Academy of Arts, and firmly believes such diets shape one’s personality and improve social welfare.
Such thinking harkens back to the Paleolithic age, when the first fruitarians or phalaharis, typified by the exiled prince Ram, is
said to have survived on forest fruit and nuts. This gave rise to a small sect of sadhus known as Ramanandis, who still follow
the diet. Dudhaharis are those who survive only on water.
In The Story of My Experiments With Truth, Gandhi details his beliefs; “It is my firm conviction that man need take no milk at
all, beyond the mother”s milk that he takes as a baby. His diet should consist of nothing but sunbaked fruits and nuts. He can
secure enough nourishment from fruits like grapes and nuts like almonds. Restraint of the sexual and other passions becomes
easy for a man who lives on such food.” Paleliothic groups in the West follow diets that involve even raw meats, fashioned in
the palate of paleolithic men.
In India, however, the back-to-basics vegetarian is still thinking about, and eliminating, certain food choices while deciding
how vegetarian to be. Fifity-five-year-old Chandru Wadhwa is an ovo-lactarian, a vegetarian who eats eggs. “Eggs are crucial
in building health and stamina,” he says. “Other meats are unnecessary and involve taking a life.” Chadru believes that some
of the benefits of being on top of the food chain are to use nature for one’s benefit without exploiting it.
Pesco-vegetarians, for instance, include the fish eating communities of India. As Karen Gelliger, president, University of Texas
Pesco-vegetarian Society, puts it, “Fish are the least-tampered-with meat form. Unlike other meats, they are not farmed or
force fed.”
But Mumbai’s first experimental vegan restaurant, Nosh, that was to introduce Mumbai to the exotica of vegetarian cuisine,
had a premature demise. The trend then, is still shy of populism, but remains a highly personalised and stylised back to
basics movement.