Bharati was born to Varanappallil Kochu Pillai Panikkar and Komelezhathu Kochu Chekothi in the year 1915. She hailed from the famous Ezhava family, Komalezhathu from Mavelikkara, Alapuzha district, Kerala.[1]
After her schooling in local institutions, she joined the Madras university for graduation. She stood second in the University for the BA examination.
During her university days, she met her future husband, fell in love and the couple married when both of them were hardly twenty.[1][2]
Bharati was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament from Kerala for the first time in 1954. During her tenure, she actively defended Kerala's interests in the States Reorganisation in 1957. She was subsequently re-elected for a second term and remained a member till 1964. She was the second woman to be elected a Member of the Parliament from the reorganized state of Kerala.[3]
Bharati authored a two-part memoir of her time in Parliament, Adukkalyil Ninnu Parliamentilekku, ( Form Kitchen to Parliament), which was critically acclaimed. The first part of the book won her the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 1961. Her biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, Ormakalile Nehru, a collection of her memoirs on the former Indian Prime Minister too received wide acclaim.[1][4][5]
