Dealing and healing

Dilber Bokdawala has bared her heart in The White Feather Diary. From Grieving to Healing about the loss of her husband Nozer to Covid two years earlier. The poignant first person account will resonate with anyone who has experienced a similar trauma. But, as she writes, "The book is not just about mourning the loss it’s also about healing… and learning from it.”

The path to healing is "challenging.” Within the pages of the book, "you may find a reflection of your own journey through grief, moments that echo your own pain. It’s your empathetic companion as you walk through the silent storm.” Several short chapters take the reader through the steps she has taken such as learning to take one day at a time; practicing positivity; discovering the true meaning of love, gratitude, balance; looking forward to something better; learning forgiveness even toward oneself and reaching out for happiness.

Dilber Bokdawala: reaching out

She uses the analogy of kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery, joining the pieces with gold. The repaired piece looks even more beautiful because of the scars. "I am piecing together my life, trying to fill the scars with learnings along the way… My healing is still a work in progress. I see cracks everywhere and want to fix them, like a kintsugi bowl.”

She writes about the added responsibility of being a single parent to her young son Jehan and daughter Pearl. "I have to live for my children and their comfort and happiness… to give them the same secure feeling that we all got from him… They need me. And I need them, more than ever.”

The book is, naturally, dedicated to her late husband. She explains the title thus: "It is said that our angels leave white feathers as reminders that they are near us. Whenever my heart cries for a need to see my husband, I see a white feather floating down gently. A reminder he is still around. This book is a way of telling him that I do notice, I know.”

The self-published 90-page book, printed in large, legible type, is well written and pleasingly free of typos. The paperback, priced at Rs 299 and the Kindle ebook at Rs 99 are available from the author at dnbokdawala215@gmail.com

S. V