Barefoot Empress
At 96, most people have already written their life story. Karthyayani Amma decided to start writing hers. This extraordinary account follows a woman from the temple streets of Haripad in Alappuzha who spent decades in anonymity, sweeping pavements outside sacred spaces. Everything changed when educationist Sathi spotted potential where others saw only routine. What unfolded was nothing short of astonishing: Amma entered the classroom for the first time in her ninth decade and blazed through Kerala's literacy examination with a phenomenal score of 98 marks, outpacing over 43,000 competitors. Her achievement sent shockwaves across India. Within years, she'd earned recognition as a Commonwealth of Learning Goodwill Ambassador and received the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar from the President himself on International Women's Day in 2020. This is a story about defying every assumption society places on age, circumstance, and possibility. It's a potent reminder that ambition doesn't expire, and that transformation can arrive at any moment. Amma's journey challenges everything we think we know about learning, purpose, and what it truly means to live fully.
- Author: Vikas Khanna
- Publisher: Bloomsbury India
- Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
- ISBN: 978-9356402386
- Pages: 32 pages