“But why on earth would you be reborn as a prawn?” I asked.
She looked at me. In fact, I realised that she was looking down
at me and snorting at the same time. Horses do that quite often
but I had never seen a human being make that effort.
“You are a Hindu aren’t you?” she asked.
“Not really,” I replied. “I am an atheist.”
She simply disregarded my statement and continued.
“Hindus are reborn,” she declared. “All Hindus must be reborn till
they achieve Nirvana. In fact, you can be reborn as any living
being. The chances are that you might be reborn as the species
that you might have killed in your previous birth. Hence if I eat a
prawn tonight, I might be reborn as one.”
I blinked and looked around. Everyone around the table was
blinking. I was extremely relieved that only Hindus are reborn,
although I did not say it loudly. Imagine what would happen if
every seafood lover was forced into reincarnation. The world
would be overrun with a special breed of crustaceans chasing the
cycle of life.
I think that on that evening, except the lady in question,
everyone loved the food.
However, I did not touch the prawns that night. The thought of
being in the same seafood curry with the lady, in my next cycle
of life, was quite unnerving.
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