'Vegetarian-only' properties in Mumbai: Meat eaters, stay away

Non-vegetarians not welcome to rent or buy an apartment in some areas amid practice of militant vegetarianism

- Nirmala Ganapathy and Debarshi Dasgupta

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI In Mrs K. Choudhary's north Mumbai apartment complex, non-vegetarians would run into an insurmountable wall of resistance if they tried to rent or buy an apartment.

In fact, in the complex of more than 800 apartments in Mahavir Nagar, door-to-door garbage collectors will not even pick up garbage if they see eggshells in it, residents there said.

There is no explicit bias against non-vegetarianism, but it is implicitly understood among landlords and property developers that apartments here will not be let out or sold to meat eaters.

Mrs Choudhary, 76, herself has no qualms about living next door to non-vegetarians even though she is a vegetarian who does not eat eggs.

"You can't dictate what others eat, but I do not cook non-vegetarian food in my house," said Mrs Choudhary, a widow, as she sat down with her two sisters-in-law for a sumptuous meal of coalsmoked beans and lentil kadhi, a yogurt-based curry.

The women sit on grey sofas and discuss food as they mop up the curry with chapatis and rice.

A single mother after her husband died in his thirties, Mrs Choudhary moved 22 years ago into the apartment complex, dominated by people from Gujarat, a western Indian state, to be close to her family.

Ms Kiran, a domestic helper who works for Mrs Choudhary and whose duties include carrying food from the kitchen to the drawing room, is non-vegetarian but can have meat or fish only when she goes out.

She would, however, have trouble finding anything except vegetarian fare in the immediate vicinity. Wrapped around the apartment complex are popular all-veg eateries serving every type of vegetarian food imaginable, including paneer and mushroom shawarma, vegetarian sushi, eggless cakes and "pure veg" burgers.

This is because vegetarians here will not eat at a restaurant that serves meat or fish or even eggs.