Chef Vikas Khanna’s new children’s book is on Kerala’s 98-year-old Karthyayani Amma

Inspired by Karthyayani Amma, who first went to school in her 90s, Chef Vikas Khanna created a documentary and then wrote Barefoot Empress, to demonstrate the power of gratitude

The pandemic did not slow Chef Vikas Khanna down. “I had to keep myself very occupied through it – at that point, I felt like everything was going wrong in my life, and all the elements were against me,” says the internationally-acclaimed Indian American chef, filmmaker, and author over a call from Mumbai.

In New York, as cases of COVID-19 soared and he worried incessantly about his family in India, Vikas began Feed India in April 2020, an initiative that served more than 51 million meals though the pandemic. He launched his restaurant Ellora in Dubai, when businesses world over were shutting down. “There were layoffs everywhere. I did not want my chefs to lose jobs,” he says, adding “My best work has come when everything was against me.”

Which could explain why Vikas was enamoured with the story of Kerala’s Karthyayani Amma. So enamoured that he travelled from his home in New York to her village in Cheppad, Alappuzha, to meet her, turned her story into a documentary, titled Barefoot Empress, and is now launching a children’s book by the same name.

Despite never learning to read or write, Karthyayani Amma went to school in her 90s. In 2018, at the age of 96, she topped the Kerala Governments literacy examination scoring 98 out of 100. In 2019 she became a Commonwealth of Learning Goodwill Ambassador, and was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by then President Ram Nath Kovind on Women’s Day in March 2020.

“I started working on amma’s story in 2018, then turned it into a documentary,” says Vikas, adding that the project and subsequent book kept him busy though the pandemic. “I realised this was an inspirational story for people going though the pandemic, feeling like they lost time and opportunities. Her story reminds us that it is never too late…”

The chef, who was inspired to cook by his grandmother, says he was immediately struck by how familiar Karthyayani Amma seemed to him. “She is like my grandmother… actually all our grandmothers. Even if they were illiterate, they were the most intelligent. They knew how to keep their families together.” He adds, “She has no bitterness about the past, though she has had such a hard life. One thing which shocked me was how forgiving she is to the world.”

The author of 38 books, he says he decided this story would have the most impact as a children’s book. Published by Bloomsbury, the simple but elegant text is brought to life with unexpectedly moving illustrations by Aaryama Somayaji.