Dr Haseena Chokkiyil’s book The Kintsugi Moms: Transformative insights from a healer’s diary brings hopeful tales of transformation that will help readers realise the worth of life, and also ways to find ways back to it when everything seems lost and haywire. The author, a holistic healer, a homoeopath and a survivor herself has braved adverse hours in her life, mothered alone, and also helped many other single mothers (a few featured in the book) get back to life with more enthusiasm after they were feeling let down and lost hopes to carry on. The Kintsugi Moms, as the title, says very much putting mothers and the Japanese art of Kintsugi in the same breath.

Before I get into the specifics of this book, let’s admit some enthusiastic information. Books on serious and concerning women’s issues are no more rare! That’s encouraging. More and more authors are coming forward with their supportive voices in various creative ways – poetry, novels, and non-fiction. On the flip side, works like these are no more a sensation as well! Kamala Das and Anita Desai are the folklore of a bygone era (while I deliberately discount Shobha De for she raised issues that were more aligned with issues in a parallel universe). Amidst rapid publications covering women in society and also a dearth of quality books on such subjects, Dr Haseena Chokkiyil’s book, The Kintsugi Moms, has appeared on the scene with promising content, seriousness in its theme, and a purpose that would certainly garner appreciation for itself.

The Kintsugi Moms opens up with a sweetly written introduction or a preface with appreciation and invitation to other readers by none other than a single mom herself, the former Miss Universe and an accomplished name in the cinema industry Sushmita Sen. Sushmita’s words are dipped in admiration, and you can feel that. The first part of the book brings the stories of eight wonderful, brave, courageous and once-broken ladies who were left alone and rejected by their loved ones. There may be an exception, an act of God, in one of the stories. How does society partially judge women for their acts and even for the things that no one can control, illness or adversaries? The stories are the real-life experiences of these women, narrated by the author. The stories begin with a note of negativity and hopelessness. And when there is no remedy available, Dr Haseena’s holistic healing methods help these brave women stir, rise and stand up to face the world. Taken from the Japanese Kintsugi art of mending broken pieces of ceramic and making them more beautiful, Dr Haseena’s support for these women worked just like that – gleaning the broken pieces of one’s inner self or soul and mending them to create someone brand new, a better version of oneself!

In the second part of the book, there are secret ingredients made with common lifestyle changes that we seldom care to make. Dr Haseena’s expertise and experiences as a counsellor, holistic healer, and homoeopath make her strategies for a better life authentic, convenient and also simple. Unlike other methods, big ideas, and farther-than-you-may-think approaches of other self-help authors and big names in the city, Dr Haseena’s approach is simple and easy enough to be followed by anyone who wants to change things in life. There are diagrams, illustrations and simple text inputs to make readers understand the concept of holistic healing that involves things within one’s reach (and literally nothing more). Embracing truth, forcing negativity away from one’s life, standing up and facing adversaries, forgiving others who may have harmed us consciously or unconsciously and other acts like these are at the centre of this approach that Dr Haseena suggests.

Overall, The Kintsugi Moms by Dr Haseena is a book that had to be written. I do recommend this book without any caution or reservation. Anyone who reads this book will have many things to learn, realise and implement. Also, the book celebrates womanhood in its true essence! Kudos to the author for this achievement!

You can read this book in Ebook or paperback format by getting a copy from Amazon. Click the link below to get a copy now:

Click here for the Amazon India book page – buy now 

Review by Priya for Intellectual Reader