Interview With Author Kanika Kamalkant
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hey there! I’m Kanika Kamalkant
I’m an Ayurveda doctor and a researcher in Ayurvedic psychology—but this journey didn’t begin with a career plan. It began with confusion, illness, and a very unexpected encounter with the Bhagavad Geeta.
Let me tell you how it all unfolded.
Where it really started
When I was about ten, I was going through serious health issues. My body didn’t respond well to many modern chemical-based medicines. In fact, I’m allergic to quite a few of them.
One day, my father—an MBBS graduate—gave me a simple medicine for fever and stomach ache. It should have been routine.
It wasn’t.
My body reacted so badly that I genuinely felt like something was very wrong. For a 10-year-old, that translated into one dramatic but very real thought:
“Maybe I’m not going to live very long.”
And then came the next thought:
“Okay… maybe I should prepare for what comes after.”
So I picked up the Bhagavad Geeta.
Not out of devotion.
Not out of curiosity.
But as preparation for the afterlife.
When the mind began to change
Something shifted when I started reading.
My body was still struggling—but my mind began to clear up. The way I looked at life, at fear, at myself—it all started changing.
And along with that came a deep interest in Vedic sciences.
For the first time, I encountered a system that didn’t treat the human being as a single, uniform entity. It said something very simple, yet very powerful:
Your body and your mind are different.
And they have different needs.
That idea stayed with me.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Calculate My Caste is the latest book, and a long time dream come true.
One of the most interesting things I read was the concept of “varna vyavastha”. The book detailed the qualities of Brahmins and other varnas (social archetypes). And then I looked around at the “Brahmins” I saw — many of them were corrupt, greedy, and nowhere close to what Krishna described. So I had this big question: Was Krishna wrong? Or were these people wrong?
Well, obviously — Krishna won the argument.
That day I realized something huge — varna was never about the family you’re born into. It’s about your nature, qualities, and actions. Somewhere along the way, society twisted it. Maybe because of ego, maybe politics, maybe the British (they were masters of divide and rule). But blaming them doesn’t solve the mess we’re in.
There’s a story from the Mahabharata that I love. At the start of Kali Yuga, Krishna showed Arjuna five signs of social decline — but one sign of hope. Arjuna saw a giant boulder rolling down a mountain, destroying everything in its path. But then — it stopped when it hit a tiny plant!
Isn’t that amazing? It means that even when falsehood, corruption, and chaos feel unstoppable — a single person, rooted deeply in truth and divinity, can stop it all. Even if you’re small, even if no one knows your name — your roots matter more than your size.
That’s the spirit behind this book. I honestly believe that if every person just read the Geeta and acted on it, 99% of the world’s problems would vanish — poof!
“Calculate Your Caste” is the book I wish I had as a kid — something to help make sense of who we are and what “caste” really means beyond all the social noise.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Bhagvad Geeta and other ancient scriptures.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I am working the foundational book – The Lies of Caste System. This books brings out hidden and suppressed insights from all the ancient books – Geeta, Mahabharat, Ramayana, Upanishad, Puran, Vedas and more.
And it proves that there is no caste system in Hinduism. It also brings out the beautiful system of varna vyavastha, that focused neither on body nor on mental aptitude, but on the spiritual level of a being.
It is already available on Kindle and I am adding more references everyday!
I hope that this book brings back the civilizational light that guided this ancient land centuries back.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesome gang
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write what you would love to tell everyone, that’s the only reason to write at all. Write because your story will bring your part of light to the world. Write because you don’t want to fret about the missed opportunity to share when you die!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Why be scared of what will happen, if nothing happens, the experience will happen.
What are you reading now?
Brihadaranyak
What’s next for you as a writer?
English version of – Lies of Caste System (right now it is in Hindi).
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Vedas
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