BANGALORE: Kriti Sachdeva and Maciek Kolbusz met through an online portal called veggieconnection.com, got together and moved from UK to Bangalore.
They lead a rather unusual lifestyle in that they have no cooking equipment in their house. They are raw vegans and do not cook and appreciate Bangalore because of the tropical fruits and veggies that can be found here in all seasons.
Maciek says, "India is a perfect country for raw vegans. There is an abundance of locally grown tropical fruits available all year round. They're sweet, juicy, delicious and healthy. People should start treating them as food, not as snacks but proper food that is eaten like a meal until one feels full and satisfied."
Kriti works for PETA while Maciek, a Polish national, works for an IT company.
Says Kriti, "I am from Delhi and have done my Masters in Human Rights from London. I wanted to get married and met Maciek online on this portal. We clicked instantly and spent a long time getting to know each other via emails, Skype etc. We finally met and found that our plans for our lives were very similar."
Working with PETA had shown Kriti the kind of cruelty that dairy animals are subjected to.
"I was born into a vegetarian household and decided to turn vegan. Do you know just how tiny is the space where a cow is squeezed for milking. There is no space even to move and it is cruel. I do not eat any dairy products," says Kriti.
When she met Maciek, he was a raw vegan. She found that his way made sense and complete meals could be put together using fruits, vegetables, sprouts and nuts.
She soon followed him into a completely raw vegan lifestyle.
Maciek says," Plant food is the best source of proteins for humans, because they contain simple proteins that can be easily digested and assimilated by the human body. Nuts and seeds like cashews, dried coconut, almonds, sesame or flax seeds contain 20 per cent of proteins. Pulses or grains that can be sprouted and eaten raw contain 10-15 per cent protein. In fresh fruits the protein content varies from 0.1 to 1 per cent."
Most restaurants in town serve vegan dishes, says Kriti, citing the example of Carrots and Paradigm Shift.
Maciek and Kriti feel the vegan scene in India is growing and developing. Maciek says, "It seems to me that most people turn vegan for ethical reasons. There is no health awareness in this matter and both followers and the antagonists of veganism consider this diet as a threat to holistic health and the path to numerous nutritive deficiencies or even starvation."
The opposite may be true, the two emphasise.
Their own life is an demonstration of their belief that eating conscientiously can be healthy for body, mind and soul.