The Vegan Journey of Mahima Purohit | VBI #012

Mahima Purohit is a vegan entrepreneur, voice artist and dog person, living in Mumbai. With her start-up, The Vegan Wagon, she aids and inspires the vegan way of life by serving delicious, on-demand vegan food and creating relevant communication.

What made you go vegan?

I was raised in a vegetarian family in Jaipur that adored its two dogs and valued compassion and kindness. I saw small things my family did that showed kindness towards animals. I saw my sister using a piece of paper trying to save a little ant flowing down our bathroom drain and my mother giving a big bucket full of water to a thirsty and distressed cow she saw on the street when it was 42 degrees outside.

On the other hand, there were some sights of animals being hurt that stayed with me. Sights of elephants painted in colours, being poked with bullhooks to conform, of camels loaded with heavily cushioned seats so tourists could take a ride on their backs, and of horses being tugged on ropes pierced through their nostrils at Indian weddings as the groom along with his family and friends (called the Baraat) danced their way to the venue, with obnoxiously loud music being played along the way. Quite disturbed by all this, I questioned the morals of people who inflicted so much pain on innocent animals for personal gain. I failed to understand how ignorant people can be to animal suffering. Eventually, I learned where leather and silk came from and refused to use shoes, belts, bags and scarfs that came from animals.

However, and strangely so, dairy products were something that I never imagined to be linked with cruelty. Milk, buttermilk, ghee, cheese etc. were a big part of our daily diets. I believed that dairy products were good for strong bones and overall health. There was a strange co-relation of milk being sacred as I often saw my grandmother pouring it on god idols as part of her religious rituals. I saw ghee being used in a prayer called Havan, to keep the sacred fire going. I saw cows (referred to as Gau Mata i.e cow mother) being worshipped aside from gods. With all these years of conditioning and positive associations with dairy, I never thought of it as cruel.

With time, I came across some writings and videos exposing the barbaric violence at dairy farms. I delved deeper and learned how directly the dairy and meat industries were connected and how much suffering and trauma they cause to innocent and voiceless animals every day. Seeing what I saw, I knew I couldn’t be a part of or contribute to such abuse in any way. That’s when I decided I wanted to be vegan.

How was your transition phase or initial days being vegan? 

The transition for me was quite sudden and that’s what made it a bit tougher than it had to be. Although I didn’t experience any health issues, things would have been easier had I experimented with some alternatives for milk and yoghurt earlier on. My husband and I went vegan together, so that definitely made it a lot easier and fun.

Was there any particular struggle you faced being vegan and would like to talk about?

I wouldn’t really call it struggle. However, any change is not easy. There were many non-vegan foods that I was fond of and resisting them was tough sometimes, like resisting a cheesy pizza that everyone around me was eating. But those were just momentary cravings only in the very beginning. And once I started to look at my food wholly, which meant also thinking about where it came from, it reminded me why that food was not for me. Besides, the choice of pleasing my taste-buds for 20 minutes was costing animals so much agony, if not their lives. So no momentary gratification could ever make that worthwhile for me. Once my relationship with food was redefined, it was no struggle at all.

Also, we’re now seeing a spurt in availability of vegan alternatives which makes transitioning so much easier! We have vegan meats, cheeses, milks, yoghurts, tea and coffee premixes, cookies, icecreams and a lot more. More restaurants are now starting to offer vegan options and even dedicated vegan menus. I feel veganism is becoming easier to adopt with every passing day and unlike a fad, it’s here to stay.

Tell us more about The Vegan Wagon. How and why did it start?

I studied advertising, management and marketing and started a marketing job at The Economist. I worked there for almost a year until I realised I wanted to do something else, something on my own. I was living away from home and I didn't have a running kitchen at my place. Finding good, healthy food was a struggle. That's when I realised that I wanted to quit, and start exploring the health food industry, and eventually, started Salad Days, which was about offering healthy meal salads. That's how my journey in the food space started. It was a vegetarian salad place that offered salads as complete meals and many customizable options. I was introduced to veganism while researching health-food. I started to read more about it: not just the animal cruelty part, but also how badly our current food choices affect the environment and how good a vegan diet is for our health. Sometime after that, I turned vegan and started The Vegan Wagon. We are a cloud kitchen and offer on-demand vegan food delivery. Currently, we are operating in two locations in Mumbai (Lower Parel and Andheri West) and serving via food delivery apps. The idea is to make vegan food easily available to people. Beside being vegan, a lot of our customers are also health and environment conscious office goers who need hygienically prepared vegan food promptly delivered to them every day.

How was the change in your social life after turning vegan?

Family and people close to me were worried that a sudden diet change could be harmful and cause deficiencies. So initially, some of them were discouraging about abstaining from dairy completely. Some were encouraging and supportive from the beginning because they knew how I have always felt about using animal products. And some also thought that a vegan diet was something I was experimenting with temporarily and wouldn't last too long. But after confrontations and conversations, they all did understand why I was doing what I was doing. And I guess eventually, as they understood my reasons, they made peace with it. At social gatherings, it often becomes a topic of conversation but I don’t really mind that. And sometimes when eating out with a group that’s non vegan, it’s tough to agree on one restaurant, but that can be overcome with a little pre-planning. Other than that, I’ve been able to meet and connect with a lot of vegans, entrepreneurs and other like-minded people and that has been quite enriching! 

Anything else you would like to mention?

Veganism is often misunderstood and not looked at in its entirety. Veganism is not a diet, it’s not a religion, Veganism is a mindset, manifesting into a way of life. It’s about looking beyond ourselves. It’s about thinking of our actions and their impact. It’s about being mindful of how our choices affect others and choosing to live with compassion, respect and kindness. It’s about doing the right thing in a world where indifference and unfairness have become the norm.

Since it is a way of life, I feel the values of veganism - love, compassion, kindness, empathy, need to be inculcated much earlier in human life. That’s why it’s important to teach these values to children while they’re still young, while the education system and cultural conditioning have not normalized animal abuse and the notion that animals are here for us to use.

For instance, how matter-of-factly a text-book says “Cow gives us milk”, completely and conveniently eliminating the truth that cow’s milk is meant for her hungry baby who is forcefully taken away from her so we can steal her milk, how the bull and cow are sexually violated repeatedly and fed with genetically modified chemicals and hormones so we get more milk, how a male calf is separated from his mom and sent to the slaughterhouse because he cannot be milked and that an old cow who cannot be impregnated anymore is met with the same fate as her male calf. Instead of hiding and normalizing the violence against animals, kids need to be taught that animals are sentient beings and hurting them is wrong. Especially, when we live in times where there are so many alternatives, it’s our responsibility to make better choices. 

Drop a message for non vegans...

The simple, habitual and seemingly harmless lifestyle choices that we make every day are causing unimaginable pain and suffering to innocent lives. Let’s not turn away because we can’t unknow what we know. But the good news is that small and gradual shifts in our habits can do so much good! Not just to the animals but also to our health and our environment. So I ask, why not? Where’s the harm in trying? It doesn’t have to be sudden and it doesn’t have to be all at once. Here’s what I recommend:

ONE: Let’s start with our own research. Let’s read about what a vegan lifestyle is, because it’s so much more than just food! Read why people turn vegan and how it affects the animals, our health and our planet.

TWO: Let’s introspect to see how we feel about what we found. Talking to people around us is a great idea, especially vegans because chances are they have had similar feelings or concerns. Having open and honest conversations helps put thoughts into perspective and shape our opinions.

THREE: If we find ourselves relating to the lifestyle, we start taking baby steps towards it. Like being vegan for one day every week, or adding a few vegan products to our cart while shopping for groceries. Connecting with vegan groups and communities online is a great way to share and address our likes, dislikes, opinions, apprehensions, experiences and concerns. With time, as we get more comfortable, we try to have more vegan days in our weeks, and months and it’s not too long before we start to experience improved health and happy vibes!

FOUR: Pro tip: Moving towards veganism is a journey that's personal and unique. It follows a different path and pace for everyone and it's okay if we fall off the wagon because we can always hop right back on!