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Vegetarianism
Stella agreed to arrange a visit to his memorial.
I asked her, "Do you know that this unique artist like Rubens was himself a vegetarian ? Since he wanted to make immense paintings, he wanted to maintain physical fitness, so he never allowed even the meat-smell nearby him. He believed that meat was hard to digest. It made the mind and body dull. Everyday he used to work till 5 o'clock in the evening, then he would go for horse-riding. On returning, he would relish vegetarian food."
She was amazed with the details I provided during the talk. I had obtained this information from the data collected by French author de Pills whose source was Phillip Rubens, painter's nephew.
Then I had a meeting with Stella, Rene and Paul. In the course of our conversation some strange issues were also raised.
Disclosing her embarrassment, she said, "I hope you will excuse me for such a querry, but if all the human beings were to turn vegetarian, I think the entire world would be overcrowed with animal beings, out-numbering the humans to a minority. Man would not have a place to stand and the earth would be a huge animal farm inhabited by sheeps and goats and hens alone.
"I think you're missing the basic issue", I said and added, "The meat requirement for the non-vegetarians is ensured by rearing the animals in the farm. Some artificial remedies are also applied so as to enhance breeding and ensure more number of animals and thereby more quota of meat! If they are left to their natural and free way of life on this earth, their number shall diminish automatically."
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