Former Kerala health minister K.K. Shailaja became a global icon because of her handling of the first phase of the COVID pandemic. In this superb memoir, she tells her story – from her childhood as a shy, fearful girl, her days as a school teacher where she learnt the art of managing difficult students to her entry into politics leading to a tenure as health minister where she dealt with two terrifying epidemics. Along the way, she tells the story of Kerala in post-independent India – how its Communist politics shaped her family and the state, and what makes the Kerala model so remarkable. Simply and grippingly written, My Life as a Comrade will be one of the country’s most important political memoirs, one that sheds light not just on a brilliant politician but the society and the world that shaped her.