Let me begin with a small anecdote. My office colleagues and I were in a lunch meeting. One of my colleagues ordered a "sushi" dish that is basically made up of fish. In an attempt to tease me being vegetarian she exclaimed "I love fish" only to receive my polite smile as a reply. As I was about to begin my Garden Veggie sandwich her dish was on the platter. Trying to act smart and garnering support from the rest of the crowd she remarked ,"See. This fish is so tasty..!! Its my favorite. Sad that you do not like it." I could not suppress my tongue in the pretext of courtesy and was quick to retort saying "Who said I do not like fish ?" and then realized I had taken the entire crowd by surprise that thinks that I am a strict vegan. I paused and said, "I like it swimming in that tank (pointing to a fish tank in the corner of the restaurant) than it being on your plate". I am sure I embarrassed her this time and exceeded limits of courtesy but felt happy about getting my point across. (I wanted to do this at least a twenty times before...!! to ten different people). I am not a fanatic by any chance but quite strong on my principle of "Live and Let others live". This made me think! Do I have a convincing argument for being a strict vegetarian. I personally view vegetarianism as a trait imbibed from birth and strengthened through mental and physical growth. To me it is more of an ethical issue. Is eating an animal eating a dead body ? Why is it barbaric to kill a human being for food while, killing an animal is forgiven. An animal does all that humans do. They give birth, they live, they make noise, they cry in pain, they love fellow beings, they reproduce and they die. I do not see any difference in the normal life chain of an animal that is slaughtered for food and a human in that aspect. With trees and plants, its leaves and fruits in no way affect the well being of the tree. The seeds of the fruit need to go back to the soil for their reproduction which is matter of time and will happen as part of the food cycle. Extending this logic to animals, I will accept milk products as vegetarian because we are not in any way endangering the very existence of the animal. I am reminded of one other incident that my friend narrated to me. He was in the Frozen section of supermarket. Chicken breasts were strung in display. A mom and her kid walked by and the mom was checking out the price of chicken. The smart kid asked her mom what was she looking at and the mom in an educative tone said "She was thinking of buying chicken". The kid became more inquisitive and trying to use her kinder garden education asked, "Mom..! How did the chicken come here and Why is it here?" and the mom still very patient in her reply said." It is dead and so is in the store for sale!." The kid did not think much to leave her mom speechless with her next set of questions. "Mom...! How did it die..? Who killed it ?Was the killer punished ?" I read this counter-argument from a religious propagandist. "God created plants and he also created animals. He did this for the sake of man and there is nothing wrong in eating animals." I just have append my answer by saying "Sticking to vegetarianism becomes a matter of prudent choice" when survival with just plants is possible why impose the pain to an animal. And to dear meat-eaters who say claim bacteria as meat, think twice before you pull in science about the bacterium. I have more scientific reasons such as hygiene, easy access to a balanced diet, calorie and other economic and spiritual statistics to support my practice.