What does Charity really mean? Kavita talks to Master Chef Vikas Khanna

Kavita A Chhibber

Charity and corporate social responsibility have become big business these days, but what does charity really mean to people who are mega achievers and at the top of their careers? Kavita talks to Master Chef Vikas Khanna

A Master Chef with 5 Michelin stars, voted as New York’s hottest chef and he was on the list of the sexiest men alive by People magazine, Vikas Khanna is also a sculptor and author of several amazing cookbooks. His magnum opus Utsav was the first book ever to make its debut at the Cannes Film festival.

He is now a producer, writer and director of an  outstanding feature film The Last Color that again made its way to Cannes Film Festival and s and beyond. It deals with social issues that are universal.

This multi gifted man has made food a spiritual experience and put India and Indian cooking on the global map. And Vikas has certainly left those clubbed feet that made him the laughingstock of others as a child far behind, because his mother Bindu Khanna’s love gave him the wings to fly.

But when it comes to charity, it is his grandmother Bimla Khanna (fondly known as Beeji) who taught him that when you receive, you must give.

“My earliest memories are those of our kitchen being open to everyone. My grandfather, Bauji told me when I was a young kid that when partition happened and the governments were shaky, people were trying to escape with their belongings on both sides of the border. Many Muslims left their young daughters in their house for protection, because their house was on the border. ” Your Beeji was the busiest person in that government,” Bauji said tongue in cheek.

“My grandmother had raised literally every child that had been born in that village, and everyone had so much respect for her that when she said, ‘No one will dare to look at or enter my house,’ everyone obliged. Otherwise no one cared and people barged in to plunder and murder. I still cannot imagine how she had the strength to stand up against the whole community.”

“All she had was this water well outside and these huge pateelas (stainless steel cauldrons). That well served everyone – the predators, the saviors and the survivors. They all came to drink from that well. She would cook a simple meal of lentils, bread and occasionally she was able to add potatoes to that pot of lentils to feed her family and those young Muslim girls who were hiding in droves in our home. They would have been raped or killed if they had not been under her protection. She never understood the repercussions and divisiveness of Partition; all she knew was to love and give unconditionally.”

“She said all material wealth means nothing to me. Gold cannot fill your stomach. And there is no end for wanting money and other material things. The chase can be endless, and you can fill your coffers continuously. But when you feed a starving person, that food brings contentment and also heals.”

As a young child Vikas would dabble with his grandmother in her kitchen but as a teenager he started rebelling. “We had to go to the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh institution in Amritsar where we lived, and take heavy sacks of  wheat kernels up a steep bridge where the auto rickshaw had to be pushed. It used to be extremely hot and our teenage minds started rebelling because our backs were chafed and scraped by those heavy sacks.”

“When I told her I was no longer going to lug those heavy sacks to donate to the temple,Beeji asked, ‘You go and eat that great food in the langar, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘So what? its free!’ and Beeji said, ‘Nothing is free. When you receive you must give back.’

“She taught me that reciprocation of kindness must be an integral part of human behavior. Her words changed my perspective, and what I considered an annoying and tiresome obligation became my moral duty.”

Those large cauldrons remained a symbol for Vikas. It reminded me him always of his grandmother’s India, where generosity, service and pure love embraced all. “When she died her face was shining and outside over thousand strangers had gathered. They told us stories of her generosity, and how she would cook at so many occasions for them and their children free of charge.

Beeji would tell me the story of King Ashoka and how as he lay dying his open palm was facing the people to show that he wasn’t taking anything back with him. We too must leave some sort of a legacy, and she did.”

Underprivileged children are very dear to Vikas and nurturing them has fueled his relationship with the Smile Foundation, an NGO in India whose main aim is to provide education, nutrition for the girl child and underprivileged children in general. Whether it is planting trees with kids from the foundation or getting CEOs of major organizations to don an apron and cook for these kids and raise funds, it is always about making a difference. Vikas also founded Sakiv, to bring to light the plight of visual disorders in children of Southeast Asia.

How did someone who does not have children of his own become so passionate about underprivileged children?

“It is their vulnerability. It’s all fine for India to showcase their technological and industrial growth, and how far we have come, but no one talks about the fact that the places many of us have come from, are very dark places. Children do not get proper nutrition, the girl child is not safe, and underprivileged children have no access to education and basic necessities of life. There is also human trafficking. For humanity to survive, we must protect and nurture our children. They come from small villages and places that have paltry resources to raise these children to be productive, to fulfill their potential. It is very heart breaking.”

When September 11 happened, Vikas was stunned. “I was working at that time in a well known restaurant in New York called Salaam Bombay. The electricity went out and it took about a week to restore everything to normalcy. I saw the first responders, the fire fighters, and so many other volunteers, running around helping others until everything was under control, and I decided I would just make one huge cauldron of vegetarian biryani and serve who ever needed food, for free.

We had four sacks of rice, vegetables and when we ran out of that, I took chickpeas and made a meal of cooked chickpeas and rice. Initially people were hesitant. I know I can pass off for a Middle Eastern man so they would ask if I was a Muslim. I had to comfort them and explain that a handful of bad people do not replace the majority of good human beings. My religion was healing them through food. These were broken people and I hope that day I was able to help them see beyond the stereotype. Many people felt their mother had been badly injured. But as they slowly started gathering around the food, the healing started to some extent.”

The owner of the restaurant was worried that the free food would affect their regular buffet adversely, but that did not happen. “And I know as I gave , it somehow strengthened my bonds with America.

I brought my moral values from India, but the execution has often happened here in America.”

Vikas has done successful fundraisers for a worthy cause across the world, with the creme de la creme. There were times people  wrote him off as a failure both in the media and otherwise. If a restaurant he had opened didn’t do too well, or when he did not have a Michelin star attached to his resume.

“There was a time I was so overwhelmed at being criticized and judged that I went away to the Himalayas and Bhutan. I was so happy there. There is a different kind of consciousness in that air, and I returned rejuvenated, ready to conquer New York again’

Vikas proved that negative opinions may hurt occasionally, but it still did not define his destiny or his dreams. “I dreamed but never tried to step over someone else to succeed. I believe that no matter where you are in the world, people invariably gravitate towards authenticity in the end.” And that authenticity became a catalyst for so many mega charitable projects one after the other – “It was literally like the heavens opened up to bless whatever I wanted to do to help others.”

There are many projects for which Vikas has done super successful fund raisers but the one he cherishes happened after the Tsunami of 2004. Vikas remembers jogging in central park post Tsunami and saw six young boys selling lemonade. “They told me they had raised 60 dollars from the sales and while it wasn’t much, they were hoping that maybe it would buy popcorn for some kids. I was so deeply moved by their efforts that I established the New York Chefs Cooking for Life Foundation and announced the event Tsunami Victims Relief Benefiting UNICEF & Save the Children without having any space to host it at.”

Vikas had fed many top Master Chefs at his restaurants and decided he was going to do the fundraiser with the top 20 Master Chefs of America, who would donate their time and each will cook a special dish. And the donors will get to meet them, taste their cuisine and get a photo opportunity with them.

“Things fell in place when the owner of the exclusive Tribeca Rooftop donated the space. ” I went door to door to sell tickets and top chefs chipped in. The event was sold out and we raised 60,000 dollars.”

“I was so confident about this event that I did not let anyone tell me it could not be done, Very often we self-sabotage our own selves by negative thinking. And everybody who was anybody, came, because something special and unique was happening. It was such a confidence booster, that I could work on such a huge platform and receive so much love and support.”

Vikas’s first directorial venture The Last Color has been making waves globally, but the latest and biggest development has been the fact that it caught the eye of the United Nations and will be showcased before the Who’s Who of 180 countries and heads of several global NGOS on July 12, 2019.

“I have worked a lot in the United Nations. We used to often cook and clean there and getting the movie to be screened there is a big step for me. This movie deals with several major issues that are not just in India but universal ones. The issue of widows and their rehabilitation (and incidentally Africa has the same issue there), protection and education for the girl child, human trafficking, what happens with power in the wrong hands and empowering the transgender community are issues in so many countries.”

If Vikas had not been put in jail one night, he would have never known how the other half lived. “We had a small audition in Lucknow for “Master Chef” and I had a day off so I thought I would go to Bodh Gaya and meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and spend some time with him. When I talked to some people around me, they said a Minister’s right-hand man will take me. So this guy came with a police car and a siren on top. He told me it was better to head out in the night to avoid traffic. En route the area is dangerous, and I noticed that you could even buy a gun with 100 rupees.”

“As we entered Varanasi the Minister’s representative asked the driver to put the red light on. I do not know why. The Police saw that, followed us and found out it is not a legitimate Police vehicle.”

“They start questioning. They are on my side of the car and ask me to get out while asking for the paperwork. I tell them everything should be in order as it’s the Minister’s car. While I’m getting out, the Minister’s so- called representative opens the door on the other side and runs away. They check the papers; the car has not even been registered and it’s an illegal vehicle!”

“The driver says he knows nothing as he was just hired for a day. So they arrested me and refused to let me make any phone calls. They dumped me in a cell. They took away all my rights that day. Exhausted when I fell asleep, they hit me with a rod and said “How dare you fall asleep?’ and moved me to a different place.”

“I realized that night, that we live so cocooned in our safe world, we are not exposed to these dangerous cancerous rays of evil power and what it can do in the wrong hands. It was a horrifying and traumatic experience. I saw people detained there in such inhumane conditions and for ages.”

“The next morning, the new police officer on duty recognized me. He asked ‘What do you do?’ I said ‘Main khana banata hoon (I cook food).’ He said, ‘Don’t you have a TV show?’ I said I did and told him the whole story. Then they allowed me to call my father, who was alive then.

“I am naïve, but Papa was the street-smart side of me that I need to this day. He said to me, ‘Didn’t you know why they are not letting you go? They want a bribe.’ He talked to them, and told them the money would reach them and in an instant they let me go. I walked out and did not know what to do with myself, other than scream in frustration. I realized then, that if you do not have powerful connections, if you don’t have the money to bribe your way out, if you are the everyman, the inhumane conditions under which you are kept can break anyone’s spirit.”

Vikas Khanna on the set of “The Last Color”

“I shot my film in Varanasi and every time I go there, I am reminded of the dark spaces beneath this city of lights. They misuse the power to abuse people who are already broken and have come to this city to find some closure, some healing. The police or power brokers take advantage of that vulnerability. My film has showcased so many issues that resonated deeply with people at the United Nations.And it is such a great honor to have it screened at the UN Headquarters.”

As we end the conversation Vikas leaves me with the insightful thought

“As artists, chefs, writers or film makers, we can create a magnificent offering and fill the eyes, plates, hearts and minds of people with beauty and magic, when we present those offerings.

But the fact that United Nations wants to use it to educate its powerful audience and bring transformation and change through my film, is what dreams and hopes are made of.”