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I’m Proud To Call Him My Inspiration-An Admiration Post For Chef Vikas Khanna

Posted by Shilpa Goel
You may have seen his book's reviews on my blog. You may have seen my photos with him on my social media accounts. But I never wrote an appreciation post for him here. I think it's due and this is the perfect time to write it.



And He is none else but Michelin Starred Chef Vikas Khanna.

So, why am I writing the appreciation post today, after following him for more than 7 years? You will know soon. Kindly stick with me till the end.

I've been a fan and follower of Chef Vikas Khanna since 2013. He inspired me to be a poet just by writing simple yet enchanting poems. He taught me that dreams do come true by making his dreams a reality. It's him who taught me that every dream you see is achievable, your circumstances cannot stop you from going after what you want as long as your intentions are pure.

He was born with clubfoot and his mother said at the time of his birth, "he isn't born to run, he's born to fly." And she gave him wings.

I have met him twice. Once in November 2017 at Palate Fest for the launch of the cover of his book Poeatry and the second time in December 2018 at Oxford Bookstore during the launch of his book The Wholesome Grains.

At Palate fest in 2017, I was backstage, standing beside him. Some of his admirers stood down the stairs, waiting to meet him soon after the event got over. He said to his security in a pleading tone, "mujhe neeche jaane do ab. Main unko aur wait nhi karwa sakta."
(Let me go downstairs. I can't make them wait anymore for me).

I was meeting him for the first time. While I was aware of his humility, his tone and expression still surprised me. And off he went to greet his fans.

I could not introduce myself properly the first time because it was too crowded and I was too spellbound to speak. Hashtag #IntrovertsProblem.

In 2018, not only did he recognise me by just telling him my Twitter username, he introduced me to everyone at his book launch saying, "please meet her. She is one of my first and biggest supporters of all time." And treated me as best as he could.

When I mailed him last year asking if he could write the foreword for my book, he replied within hours with a positive response. I wanted none but him to write it. He is the reason I found poetry (or maybe, poetry found me). It makes me proud to see his name on the cover of my debut book Poetic Letters To God.

When people ask me what inspires me to write, I make a long list: Nature, God, people, emotions, and everything that comes under my observation.

But when they ask me 'who' inspires me, I have just one answer and that is Chef Vikas Khanna.

Coming back to why am I writing this?
Seeing his efforts during the COVID-19 outbreak, I feel prouder than ever to be his fan. And I think that this is the right time to post it on the blog.

He's been feeding Millions of people in India during this time, teaming up with NDRF and others**

Not just distributing dry ration, they've converted fuel stations into food stations where they serve cooked meals to the migrant workers, they've been distributing sanitary napkins, masks, and even slippers to the ones walking barefoot in the scorching heat.

He has also joined hands with Sonu Sood to feed people whom Sonu Sood has been helping reach home.

The power of social media?
He has carried out all this by operating from his home in Manhattan, NYC! As he says, "it all started with one tweet."

On June 3rd, they crossed 9 million dry and cooked meals and are about to hit the Ten Million meals mark.

Here are the tweets about recent updates of their FeedIndia Drive



I'm proud to be his fan and will always be.

Wish we had more people like him and all others tirelessly carrying out the rescue operations!

**With the help of my friend, Bhavani Krishna, I'm able to list these brands and people associated with him. But there are many more joining hands with him each passing day. As he quotes in one of his tweets "Main akela hi chala tha, karwaan banta gaya" (I had started alone... and the tribe kept growing).

India gate, Daawat, Patanjali, Vodafone, GoQi, Paytm, Pushp, Bergner India, Proctor and Gamble (Whisper), Tropicana, Anupam Kumar Pandey, Nikhil Zanvar, Satya Pradhan (NDRF Director General), Shunya (Drink), K. Ganesh, Ruchira Gupta, HungerBox, Maximus Collabs, Niine Sanitary Pads-Payal Tulsiyan, Rana Safvi, Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi, Bharat Petroleum, Jivana Somiaya, NU SKIN.

I apologise for the names I missed, if any.

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