About Me: I'm an abolitionist, meaning I believe in animal rights: the abolition of the exploitation of animals. I used to make various excuses for consuming animal products, and I also let others off the hook too easily. Having educated myself about the various ways humans use animals, I can no longer justify ignorance and hierarchy based on species. I have very little patience for vegetarians who continue to justify eating animal products, and I also have little patience for lifestyle vegans who don't care about animal rights. If it is to mean anything, veganism needs to be about a commitment to animal rights, first and foremost, not a movement to placate our selfish concerns like diets and consumerism. That doesn't mean I'm a no-fun dogmatic a-hole shoving morals down your throat - it means I'm actually committed to something, and I want to show people that it's really really easy to stop being ethically lazy and start thinking critically. Aside from animal rights, I'm into bicycles, anarchism & direct democracy, cooking, making zines, photography, origami, alternative media, playing the melodica, and a bunch of other stuff.

How I became a veggie: I was vegetarian for the first 6 years of my life, in India. When my family came to the US in 1984, I think that'd when I started eating meat, and it lasted for 10 years. I stopped eating meat in high school, at age 16, due partly to the influence of a friend of mine who was concerned with animal rights, partly to Morrissey, and partly to my health problems. I used to make fun of vegans in college because I never thought I could give up animal products, and even when I first tried to go vegan in college, I always denied that it was because of a concern for animals, because (let's face it) even in vegan circles, animal rights is really taboo (and that's just idiotic, spineless, conservative, and just plain wrong). I've been involved in other forms of activism in my life, and in the past year I've become involved in animal rights activism. My biggest vegan/AR influence right now is the Vegan Freak Radio podcast, along with the books Vegan Freak: Being Vegan In A Non-Vegan World and Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights.