As a child , I was always a picky eater. The foreign flavours of a new substance would always trigger me to spit it out and especially if they were some kind of vegetables. Vegetables are a child’s worst enemy, at least they were mine and I always felt that it was impossible for me to eat vegetables. I always wondered what was so special about those green alien abominations that people could eat them everyday.
Who is the villain?
One day while my mom was making a green vegetable curry, I asked her a revolutionary question- WHY VEGETABLES! My mom gave me an answer that I honestly never expected. She told me that the plants are made up of the stuff that us humans are made up of. I was absolutely flabbergasted at my mother’s statement. I wasn’t even sure who was the villain anymore. Were we eating living creatures? Would they one day take revenge on us ?
A horror movie on the repeat
My abhorrence changed to terror and after that day whenever I would see a tree swaying, I thought it was trying to catch me and eat me like how we eat them. My life felt like it was a horror movie on repeat. I got so scared of these leafy villains that I stopped venturing out of my house. My parents absolutely had no idea what was wrong with me. My fear of plants grew day by day as I started imagining new ways of my death by these puny but deadly creatures.
Sensing the reason
Then one day, they dragged me outside the house. I kept screaming , they kept dragging. My parents strapped me to the seat of the car and started driving away. They stopped the car in front of an old crooked banyan tree. I thought to myself that it was definitely the leader of the trees. My mom observed my tear stained terrified expression and started to explain to me what a food web was and how all of us are interdependent for nutrition on our surroundings. The one thing that breathed the air of relief into me was when she told me that plants actually don’t have a brain and that we are smarter than them. I have never felt more cockier or powerful in my life.
It gave my 9 year old brain the much desired relief and I told my mom that I was going to eat all my vegetables from that day on.
And now, I feel like Popeye whenever I eat vegetables. Succulent, smooth and crunchy, vegetables are definitely rewarding to eat. So now I can easily ask kids – Why NOT vegetables! 🤩
Writer : Umika Sharma
Grade : 10 (Year 2021)
Place : Gurugram, India
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