What does recovery look like when it begins not with a grand plan, but with an empty glass bottle and a few colours?
For Seema Agrawal Choudhary, it looked like her daughter smiling and saying, “Mumma, let’s paint together.”
The Day a Little Girl Picked Up a Brush
Seema is a counsellor, educator, artist, and Chairperson of Mother Teresa Public School in Janakpurdham, Nepal. Behind her calm and approachable presence was a long, painful battle with severe depression, a story she tells for the first time in her debut memoir, My Daughter Painted Me Back in Life.
At the time, her daughter Dakshita, lovingly called Angel, was a Grade 8 student living in a hostel. During a visit home, she did not try to fix her mother or ask her to think positive. She simply handed her a discarded bottle, some paint, and a brush.
Fifty-Eight Artworks, Fifty-Eight Milestones
What began as an afternoon together grew into BOW, Beauty Out of Waste, a journey in which recycled bottles became a language for feelings that were too heavy for words. The book follows 58 artworks across five parts, from “When Darkness Had a Voice” to “Painting Myself Back to Life.” Each artwork carries a memory, an emotion, or a lesson.
A Memoir That Respects the Role of Professional Help
The book is clear that art was one part of a larger path. Seema credits her husband for choosing medical help over superstition, and a therapist who gave her a safe space to be understood. It is a heart’s diary, not a medical guide, and it encourages readers to seek support.
Sometimes the first step back is smaller than anyone expects.
My Daughter Painted Me Back in Life by Seema Agrawal Choudhary is published by Pen and Paper Publication.
#MyDaughterPaintedMeBackInLife #SeemaAgrawalChoudhary #MentalHealthAwareness #DepressionToHope #BeautyOutOfWaste #PenAndPaperPublication
Grab your copy now: https://amzn.in/d/0dMa9eAV
