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ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ - Krishna Shastry
ಪ್ರಾಣಿ ಹಕ್ಕುಗಳು, ಶುದ್ಧ ಸಸ್ಯಾಹಾರ, ಪರಿಸರ, ಆರೋಗ್ಯ ಇವೆಲ್ಲವನ್ನೂ ಒಳಗೊಂಡ ವೀಗನಿಸಂ ಎಂಬ ತತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ನಂಬಿಕೆ ಇಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಒಬ್ಬ ಸರಳ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗ ನಾನು.
ನನ್ನ ಇತರ ಆಸಕ್ತಿಗಳೆಂದರೆ ನೀತಿಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ, ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ನೀತಿಸಂಹಿತೆಗಳು, ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಆರೋಗ್ಯ, ಆವಿಷ್ಕಾರಗಳು, ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ, ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ, ಭಾಷಾನೀತಿಗಳು ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ.

I am a simple Kannadiga following veganism, that cares about animal rights, pure vegetarianism, environment and health.
My other interest include ethics, public healthcare, public policies, innovation, science & technology, Kannada language and linguistic policies.
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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Experience Sharing: Leaflet-ing on World Vegan Day

Recently I wrote about Future of Veganism in India. While I am still living that thought, something else came up that prompted me to write this. Yesterday, 1st Nov, was World Vegan Day - belated greetings for all those who missed!. Lot of interesting activities happened yesterday, here I am sharing few things specific to the event when we distributed free buttermilk and leaflets at Sony Signal in Koramangala.















Fact Sheet:
- Free buttermilk, utensils, paper cups etc. were from Carrots, and the leaflets that we had yesterday were from Samabhava & FIAPO
- Incuding 3 people from Carrots, there were around 15 people who came forward and volunteered
- TV9 crew came in and stayed with us for quite sometime, interviewing people and asking their opinion about veganism, the buttermilk etc.

Positives that I observed:
- Huge turnout of volunteers was very inspiring
- Many people stayed and patiently listened to what we had to say, it was good sign
- TV9 crew was very supportive of the cause and were very friendly too
- We did not let the place litter, we carried a bin also where people put the used cups

Things that can be improved:
- I hope vegans in Bengaluru collectively invest in and create a good repository of reusable artifacts for such occasions. Ex: Attention grabbing costumes, printed/colourful message holders
- Having no leaflets in local languages was a void that I could strongly feel, and without that we were trying to target only those whom we thought could speak and read English.
- With more and more such events, enthusiastic activists can become more experienced also and be more effective
- In this case the entire campaign was led by Carrots. While we like doing it and will continue to do so wherever possible in future also, it would be nice to see more and more NGOs make more determined efforts in this direction. If that happens, maybe we would be happier to assume more of a supportive role instead and play our strengths (ex: by providing free sample food)

An effective campaign is an art as well as science, nevertheless a very involved process. We did the best we can, using limited amount of time, money and people power we had, and tried to fill the voids with lots of passion and love :-) I could see that the last 2 factors i.e. passion & love clearly had power to bridge the gap to a great extent and achieve results. However, we should remember that systematic revolution needs much more.

Overall it was very fulfilling and everyone took away lot of learnings too. I am glad to have been part of this during my last few days in India before moving to London, and wishing a great success to the rise of veganism in India in coming days.

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