Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (Book)

Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur. First book of the year and that too poetry :) sent by a very dear friend which totally surprised me. I am not much into poetry anyways so had hardly any expectations from this one and my first thoughts were that I may read a few of them as an obligation and let her know that it was beautiful and all that. But what intrigued me was the way the whole book is designed or shall I say conceptualized, totally black front and back. Plus every chapter starts with two back to back black pages and the title mentioned in-between. All the poems and sentences start with small letters, not a single capital letter used anywhere. Mind-blowing illustrations, nerve shattering words, heart-touching painful story of child abuse, heart break, failed relationship and finally last but not the least to my some comfort about healing. A tight slap on patriarchal society which refuses to change even after being free and (so called) democracy for more than 70+ years. I had heard of this collection of poems sometime back but never knew about the gravity of her words. Being a male, a husband and a father, it actually made me think so much, of-course I am not a quarter as bad as the men in her poem are. But undoubtedly it shook me to the core and I guess it changed something deep down inside me. I am finding it very hard to explain and I firmly believe with my limited vocabulary I am doing no justice to this gem of a book. Entire book as I said is divided into four chapters and each chapter has so much heart and pain in it that I ended reading the book in flat one sitting. And then next day morning I couldn't control and read it yet again. This is a sort of record for me personally as I have never read a book again and even if I have, not that fast and not that soon after the first reading. The way her poetry took me on a roller coaster ride that even after finishing it, I was in a trance of sorts for next 10 days. Its been that long and I still couldn't gather my thoughts properly to come out with a blabber. To give you a hint about the content, let me tell you the chapter titles. First is "the hurting", Second chapter is "the loving", Third is "the breaking" and fourth the last is "the healing". If you have read Milk and Honey, do let me know how you like it and if you haven't, I suggest you get a copy asap and give it a read soon. You are so going to love it. But be ready for some shocks and surprises as it isn't and easy read from any standard. And I will look forward to her other books coming my way :).