People
Khalida and Nadia Arab, co-authors of the family cookbook.
Published: March 28, 2024 | Updated: 4th April 2024
A Portsmouth teacher is raising money for water pumps across Africa and Asia by selling her family cookbook, thought lost for 30 years.
The Road From Karachi: Indian and Pakistani Cookery Made Easy began life as simply Indian Cookery Made Easy.
Khalida and Riaz Arab
It was published by Khalida and Riaz Arab, who moved to the UK from India and Pakistan following a visit on their honeymoon.
Once here, the couple launched a thriving Indian cookery school in Portsmouth – inspiring them to publish a cookbook which was sold to students and stocked in WH Smith.
But when they moved away from the area and closed the school, their only edition of the book was lost.
Even after years of searching, they were never able to recover a copy, and with it disappeared an archive of family history.
That was until 30 years later, when their daughter, Nadia, discovered that one of her colleagues had the cookbook at home.
Nadia has since given the old family recipes a new lease of life, (re)publishing The Road From Karachi – where her parents had lived before coming to the UK – in 2021.
The ‘R’ of Road is a nod to her father, and the ‘K’ to her mother, Khalida. And the book even retails for £19.87 in honour of the original year of release.
All profits from The Road From Karachi go towards supplying clean water pumps to those in need, with Nadia targeting 100 pumps by June 2024.
She’s so far funded 60 installations at £150 each, and hopes to supply more than 1000 over the coming years as the book brings in more revenue.
“My dream came true”, said Nadia.
“Finding my cookbook from years ago and seeing it in real life fills me with so much happiness and now seeing the book do so many meaningful projects is beautiful to see.”
Amid all this, Nadia continues to hold down a full-time job as a college teacher alongside part-time work as a fitness instructor.
But in her spare moments, she and Khalida have spent four years reinventing the old cookbook – updating the design and recipes and adding QR codes for instructional videos.
Nadia even runs cooking courses of her own, teaching recipes from the book – just as her parents once did.
Chefs can then sell the meals in their restaurants, with a percentage of the profits going to the clean water pump project.
“It was really important to me to make a difference with this book beyond its history”, said Nadia.
“The change it’s making in the future will hopefully be the legacy that it leaves.
“Our first water pump was purchased in 2021, but the 100 mission started on my birthday, October 26th in 2022 – our aim is to have the 100 installed by June 2024.
“Hopefully we’ll not only encourage more people to consider different cuisines and styles of cooking and let our family’s legacy live on, but we’ll also make a big change in communities across the world that need it most.”
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