What do you think?
Rate this book
Visa, Stickers and other Matters of the Soul
Visa, Stickers and Other Matters of the Soul is a charming personal account of a mother’s efforts to inculcate the values of Indian culture and spirituality while bringing up her daughter as a global citizen in China. As she begins to educate her daughter, she is surprised by her daughter’s sense of understanding and realizes that parenting is her biggest life lesson, with her daughter as her teacher.
Huffington Post: Chauhan's fast-talking and funny-profound voice made me think this is how it might have been if 'Eat, Pray, Love' had graduated to something called Love, Question, Parent - crossculturally at that.
Scroll: Reading Visa, Stickers – and it’s a good read; beautifully written, often profound, and always funny – also reveals something about 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom' that one might have missed amidst the intellectual dust. It’s the fact that underlying Amy Chua’s strict, rule-based, no-nonsense style is the same maternal love that's behind Chauhan’s explorative, open-minded approach.
Huffington Post: Chauhan's fast-talking and funny-profound voice made me think this is how it might have been if 'Eat, Pray, Love' had graduated to something called Love, Question, Parent - crossculturally at that.
Scroll: Reading Visa, Stickers – and it’s a good read; beautifully written, often profound, and always funny – also reveals something about 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom' that one might have missed amidst the intellectual dust. It’s the fact that underlying Amy Chua’s strict, rule-based, no-nonsense style is the same maternal love that's behind Chauhan’s explorative, open-minded approach.
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 2015
4 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 8, 2015
A great book that did not have the benefit of a committed and earnest editor.
The book is about the attempts of an Indian mother to imbibe spiritual values in her child, growing up a different country (China). It seems to be a collection of interesting vignettes spanning a 3-4 year window. The child appears precocious but the interactions seem authentic too - all children do surprise parents. The title of the book comes from one or two such interactions.
The author describes her discovery of her child's unique and fresh perspectives on values. There is a sense of respect for the child's inner beauty which make for charming reading.
The book drifts into descriptions of Sathya Sai Baba and hostel life there, which are fine in themselves, but do not tie back strongly enough to the main theme and makes you wonder why it was necessary to include the sections and allusions. Perhaps it was but the editor failed to guide the author and convince this reader.
A very attractive cover and excellent language. In parts, very very good. But again, honestly, irritated by the editor's clear lack of experience and energy. As a result I wondered if one might comment on the author's lack of stamina, with most sections rather short.
Certainly worth a read.
The book is about the attempts of an Indian mother to imbibe spiritual values in her child, growing up a different country (China). It seems to be a collection of interesting vignettes spanning a 3-4 year window. The child appears precocious but the interactions seem authentic too - all children do surprise parents. The title of the book comes from one or two such interactions.
The author describes her discovery of her child's unique and fresh perspectives on values. There is a sense of respect for the child's inner beauty which make for charming reading.
The book drifts into descriptions of Sathya Sai Baba and hostel life there, which are fine in themselves, but do not tie back strongly enough to the main theme and makes you wonder why it was necessary to include the sections and allusions. Perhaps it was but the editor failed to guide the author and convince this reader.
A very attractive cover and excellent language. In parts, very very good. But again, honestly, irritated by the editor's clear lack of experience and energy. As a result I wondered if one might comment on the author's lack of stamina, with most sections rather short.
Certainly worth a read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2017
Not everyone's peice of cake! It did excite me when I read the reviews but eventually it turned to be more of an promotion for the master's paradise!! Lom u made me wonder at many places, if the intent of the book was narrate ur experiments with Kay on building a culture , passing on a honoured tradition and spirituality or were u building an image of the Master! Leaving aside the above there were few places which were real good initially and in isolation as flip through pages.
September 10, 2015
A beautiful book
With some books you face a conflict. One part of you doesn’t want you to put it down - because it’s beautifully written, its momentum takes you along and you want more and more of it. You want to carry it along while answering the door, or to the kitchen to turn the stove off. But then, there is another part of you that wants you to put the book aside. Not because you read something very complex - but because it resonates with you deeply. You want to take some time off to reflect about what you have read - perhaps to recollect your own experiences from the past, or to indulge in thinking about the future.
Visa, Stickers and other Matters of the Soul is one of those rare books. In my case, I must confess that it’s the part that wanted me to go on that eventually won. After the fourth chapter, I finished it in one go.
Visa, Stickers is beautifully written. The book gently pulls you in, and it’s as if you are going on a journey along with the author. The setting shifts from Shimla in the north of India, to her Master’s ashram in the south - and from Shanghai to Shenzhen in China. It has something of a travel book in it. However, its primary concern is not about the physical places - it’s about experiences. Pico Iyer once wrote: "For in traveling to a truly foreign place, we inevitably travel to moods and states of mind and hidden inward passages that we’d otherwise seldom have cause to visit." It applies to this book.
Lom Harshni has a travel writer’s eye for detail and a short story writer’s talent for conveying them. (At one point, she describes one of her teachers thus: Her politely arranged lips shifted their neat alignment. She smiled wider and with that her whole face lit up with an impish charm uniquely hers, a smile that had always rendered her face spectacularly radiant when she mentioned Master.) The dialogues, a key part of the book, have an immediacy; they are frequently funny, and often profound.
I went to same university as Lom Harshni (at a different campus, but around the same time, in the 90s) - and there was much that she has written that I could relate to. But the core of the book is about her adventures with her daughter Kyra - the conversations they have, the trips the take, the small battles they fight (taking a one-hour metro ride for Kyra's choir lessons, for example) - and her concerns about parenting.
The lessons run in both directions. Kyra is amazingly insightful - as only children can be. (One of my friends - a young mother - explained it this way: they are closer to the source of wisdom than we are). And Lom has to match that simplicity while passing on the lessons she learnt over a lifetime from her friends, her books, her parents, her teachers, and above all from her Master. She does that beautifully - by devising games, inventing metaphors, and conducting small little experiments - with a lot of patience, understanding and love.
All these make for a fantastic read - and at the end, the book wakes in us a spring of gratitude.
With some books you face a conflict. One part of you doesn’t want you to put it down - because it’s beautifully written, its momentum takes you along and you want more and more of it. You want to carry it along while answering the door, or to the kitchen to turn the stove off. But then, there is another part of you that wants you to put the book aside. Not because you read something very complex - but because it resonates with you deeply. You want to take some time off to reflect about what you have read - perhaps to recollect your own experiences from the past, or to indulge in thinking about the future.
Visa, Stickers and other Matters of the Soul is one of those rare books. In my case, I must confess that it’s the part that wanted me to go on that eventually won. After the fourth chapter, I finished it in one go.
Visa, Stickers is beautifully written. The book gently pulls you in, and it’s as if you are going on a journey along with the author. The setting shifts from Shimla in the north of India, to her Master’s ashram in the south - and from Shanghai to Shenzhen in China. It has something of a travel book in it. However, its primary concern is not about the physical places - it’s about experiences. Pico Iyer once wrote: "For in traveling to a truly foreign place, we inevitably travel to moods and states of mind and hidden inward passages that we’d otherwise seldom have cause to visit." It applies to this book.
Lom Harshni has a travel writer’s eye for detail and a short story writer’s talent for conveying them. (At one point, she describes one of her teachers thus: Her politely arranged lips shifted their neat alignment. She smiled wider and with that her whole face lit up with an impish charm uniquely hers, a smile that had always rendered her face spectacularly radiant when she mentioned Master.) The dialogues, a key part of the book, have an immediacy; they are frequently funny, and often profound.
I went to same university as Lom Harshni (at a different campus, but around the same time, in the 90s) - and there was much that she has written that I could relate to. But the core of the book is about her adventures with her daughter Kyra - the conversations they have, the trips the take, the small battles they fight (taking a one-hour metro ride for Kyra's choir lessons, for example) - and her concerns about parenting.
The lessons run in both directions. Kyra is amazingly insightful - as only children can be. (One of my friends - a young mother - explained it this way: they are closer to the source of wisdom than we are). And Lom has to match that simplicity while passing on the lessons she learnt over a lifetime from her friends, her books, her parents, her teachers, and above all from her Master. She does that beautifully - by devising games, inventing metaphors, and conducting small little experiments - with a lot of patience, understanding and love.
All these make for a fantastic read - and at the end, the book wakes in us a spring of gratitude.
April 3, 2015
Visa, Stickers and Other Matters of the Soul, a book by Lom Harshni Chauhan takes us on a roller coaster ride that is Parenting - the role that each mother and father dons in the world, each parent new and old, heck, each of us non-parents, who wish to be the best, and teach the best to our kids/nieces/nephews or to our own selves. In a world that is now a global village. In a world, where we all STILL make mistakes, and be okay with it.
This parenting memoir by Lom could be a story like any other, which speaks of pleasures and problems of parenting, and everydays that come and go, only that it isn’t! What makes it stand out is how the exigencies of a global parent, in this time and age, are not the potential of what is outside, but what is inside. For her, her daughter, and the world at large.
Lom draws heavy inspiration from her Alma mater days, and her Guru, whom she endearingly calls Master through the book, while she is figuring out how to bring up Kyra, as their Indian roots, culture and spirituality is at bay in their atheist neighborhood.
She lets us see how the fears of relieving your kid of her fears, is fearsome enough. She addresses us the one issue all of us face, parent or otherwise: ‘Am I doing it right?’ ‘Is it good enough?’ How kids could tell the ‘darnedest things’ (as Lom puts it), and make you marvel at its sheer profundity. How a(ny) Master’s unconditional love, a love beyond all the rules that the world expects you to follow, would be a constant succor. How brotherly/ sisterly love exists irrespective of varying years and age, when they are deep-rooted in the universality of human values.
Also, interwoven with doses of humor, this book had me laugh at Kyra’s adventures with understanding herself, and the ways of the world. As Lom seeks inner guidance, and finds her stride in her cosmic connectivity, one can find young Kyra joining in, and finding her peace with the approach.
How a child learns from a mother, and a mother from the child. How obstacles, trials and errors are not just a part of life, but a learning path to life. How ‘inter-faith’ learning helps us see their underlying oneness. And as all the stories and sub-stories take us on a ferry wheel ride, we would see how life too keeps us in good humor with its jocular moments, weirdly wired musings, labyrinth of myriad questions, the humanness of it all, and much more, giving us a ride of its own.
Through Lom’s story, we would also see the one thing that keeps us grounded always: FAITH, and what it does when we hold onto it.
This parenting memoir by Lom could be a story like any other, which speaks of pleasures and problems of parenting, and everydays that come and go, only that it isn’t! What makes it stand out is how the exigencies of a global parent, in this time and age, are not the potential of what is outside, but what is inside. For her, her daughter, and the world at large.
Lom draws heavy inspiration from her Alma mater days, and her Guru, whom she endearingly calls Master through the book, while she is figuring out how to bring up Kyra, as their Indian roots, culture and spirituality is at bay in their atheist neighborhood.
She lets us see how the fears of relieving your kid of her fears, is fearsome enough. She addresses us the one issue all of us face, parent or otherwise: ‘Am I doing it right?’ ‘Is it good enough?’ How kids could tell the ‘darnedest things’ (as Lom puts it), and make you marvel at its sheer profundity. How a(ny) Master’s unconditional love, a love beyond all the rules that the world expects you to follow, would be a constant succor. How brotherly/ sisterly love exists irrespective of varying years and age, when they are deep-rooted in the universality of human values.
Also, interwoven with doses of humor, this book had me laugh at Kyra’s adventures with understanding herself, and the ways of the world. As Lom seeks inner guidance, and finds her stride in her cosmic connectivity, one can find young Kyra joining in, and finding her peace with the approach.
How a child learns from a mother, and a mother from the child. How obstacles, trials and errors are not just a part of life, but a learning path to life. How ‘inter-faith’ learning helps us see their underlying oneness. And as all the stories and sub-stories take us on a ferry wheel ride, we would see how life too keeps us in good humor with its jocular moments, weirdly wired musings, labyrinth of myriad questions, the humanness of it all, and much more, giving us a ride of its own.
Through Lom’s story, we would also see the one thing that keeps us grounded always: FAITH, and what it does when we hold onto it.
December 12, 2021
This is the first time I read this book after hitting my 20s. I read this as a teenager back in the day, when the book was just published. I understood how much of a responsibility parenting is; it helped me understand my parents and my value system better. I was awestruck with the mother the narrator is, presenting before her daughter all the options there are to live a meaningful and happy life, while also handholding her when need be, and letting her child choose for herself which of the many paths to goodness she wishes to take. I admired a mother’s effort to make her child physically and spiritually self-reliant, while still ensuring that her child has all the warmth and guidance she needs.
This revisiting allowed me to look at the mother and learn how to learn from life. Here is a mother who grew up in India, in an ashram, learning from life that has passed and life as it happens, to pass on a legacy of human values to her child whom she is bringing up in China. It taught me how parenting is learning to learn from your child, while also teaching her. Responsible, contextual learning and teaching are inextricably tied. One feeds the other.
Faith, the need to cultivate it and all that it does when you hold on to it—another lesson this book reinforces.
It is such a beautifully written book peppered with the right amount of humour and profundity. Lom’s conversations with Kyra, her daughter are such a delight to read ❣ The book's title is a product of one such interesting metaphor-filled coversation! 😊
Love, love and only love for this book. Oh yes, and tons of gratitude 🤍
This revisiting allowed me to look at the mother and learn how to learn from life. Here is a mother who grew up in India, in an ashram, learning from life that has passed and life as it happens, to pass on a legacy of human values to her child whom she is bringing up in China. It taught me how parenting is learning to learn from your child, while also teaching her. Responsible, contextual learning and teaching are inextricably tied. One feeds the other.
Faith, the need to cultivate it and all that it does when you hold on to it—another lesson this book reinforces.
It is such a beautifully written book peppered with the right amount of humour and profundity. Lom’s conversations with Kyra, her daughter are such a delight to read ❣ The book's title is a product of one such interesting metaphor-filled coversation! 😊
Love, love and only love for this book. Oh yes, and tons of gratitude 🤍
November 29, 2015
Visa Stickers another Matters of the Soul is a creative non-fiction, a memoir and a love-story of the author’s life coming of age in an Indian ashram, shaping her life. It is a journal and a legacy for her daughter reflecting her responsibilities as a mother.
Her endeavor is to raise her daughter to become an individual thinker, sharpening her social, spiritual and religious awareness. The book shows humorously how she deliberates her own spiritual, educational background of 20 years ago with the present time situation in which her daughter is growing up in and into.
She is philosophically adept and shows deep spiritual insight, quoting the wisdom of various masters, always keeping the tone light at heart, thereby showing herself as a strong-willed, highly reflective personality. At times it is hilariously funny when she quotes her inquisitive, imaginative, sometimes quick-witted, sometimes (like mom) reflective 6-year old.
What makes this book interesting for me is the fact that she, like me, although European, has grown up in a culturally diverse environment. She was educated in a Catholic school as well as an ashram and grew up in an Indian town with caste awareness. She lives in China. Her friends are Hindi, Moslem, Christian, Buddhists and atheists.
In a fast changing world, this book can be an inspiration for parents trying to raise their children to become global, responsible citizens. On another level, it gives insights into a spiritual philosophy, which is loving, yet dutiful, and encourages finding an individual path without dogma.
Her endeavor is to raise her daughter to become an individual thinker, sharpening her social, spiritual and religious awareness. The book shows humorously how she deliberates her own spiritual, educational background of 20 years ago with the present time situation in which her daughter is growing up in and into.
She is philosophically adept and shows deep spiritual insight, quoting the wisdom of various masters, always keeping the tone light at heart, thereby showing herself as a strong-willed, highly reflective personality. At times it is hilariously funny when she quotes her inquisitive, imaginative, sometimes quick-witted, sometimes (like mom) reflective 6-year old.
What makes this book interesting for me is the fact that she, like me, although European, has grown up in a culturally diverse environment. She was educated in a Catholic school as well as an ashram and grew up in an Indian town with caste awareness. She lives in China. Her friends are Hindi, Moslem, Christian, Buddhists and atheists.
In a fast changing world, this book can be an inspiration for parents trying to raise their children to become global, responsible citizens. On another level, it gives insights into a spiritual philosophy, which is loving, yet dutiful, and encourages finding an individual path without dogma.
June 24, 2015
Lom Harshini Chauhan's book is well written, engaging and delightfully funny.
The narrative weaves easily in and out of the her own childhood and that of her very special child - little Kyra.
Her experiences are reproduced without embellishment or judgment; from the point of view of an observer who watches but does not necessarily assign value. And therefore, feel real, relatable and refreshing.
While China plays a role in the book, it is a role that is largely played in the background. China could have been replaced by any other country without much difference I feel. It would have been interesting to read a little more about the cultural experience of mother and daughter with Chinese culture as a larger player in the scheme of things.
Kudos however, to Lom Harshini Chauhan for bringing a simplicity and ease to matters of spirituality. To having dealt with a topic of this nature with a feather touch and unique lightness. A special book, especially so for mothers and daughters.
The narrative weaves easily in and out of the her own childhood and that of her very special child - little Kyra.
Her experiences are reproduced without embellishment or judgment; from the point of view of an observer who watches but does not necessarily assign value. And therefore, feel real, relatable and refreshing.
While China plays a role in the book, it is a role that is largely played in the background. China could have been replaced by any other country without much difference I feel. It would have been interesting to read a little more about the cultural experience of mother and daughter with Chinese culture as a larger player in the scheme of things.
Kudos however, to Lom Harshini Chauhan for bringing a simplicity and ease to matters of spirituality. To having dealt with a topic of this nature with a feather touch and unique lightness. A special book, especially so for mothers and daughters.
January 28, 2016
The book is an account of the spiritual journey of the author's child which at the same time leads the author on an inner journey of her own soul as she strives to put to practice her master's teachings. The innocence of a child is so pure that they can ask the most profound questions as reflected in the way Kyra asks her mother about Visas for the Soul. The innate kindred spirit that leads to empathy among all mankind shines forth all along in the author's work where she discusses her life as a newcomer in China and her subsequent years exploring the Chinese ethos finding the common thread between the two oriental cultures.
I could not wait to go to the final chapter, where the author brings her child to her master's Ashram for the first time and all her apprehensions come to a rest as her child finds an inexplicable peace. This book is a must for all who wish to relate their everyday tiffs between the mind and conscience, between modernity and staying grounded and shows a way to live in the world, yet being unaffected by its disorder.
I could not wait to go to the final chapter, where the author brings her child to her master's Ashram for the first time and all her apprehensions come to a rest as her child finds an inexplicable peace. This book is a must for all who wish to relate their everyday tiffs between the mind and conscience, between modernity and staying grounded and shows a way to live in the world, yet being unaffected by its disorder.
January 14, 2016
It is a very heartwarming book about parenthood - I have no kids so from Lom’s eyes I was able to see what raising a kid is like and how a parent learns along the way. Meanwhile, I am very impressed by how intelligent and thoughtful Kyra is. Kids these days really learn much faster than our generation did!
Full review: http://royceto.com
Full review: http://royceto.com
January 18, 2016
One of my friend had recommended me the book. If you follow any of the Indian Spiritual babas (this one being on Sri Sai Satya Baba - yes, covers can be deceptive!), you might be able to relate and enjoy! I border between atheism and agnosticism and frankly would call out a coincidence as one and not give it a supernatural spin. Heads up for Kyra, the child who receives her spiritual inheritance from her mother. The only reason I could complete the book was due to her innocence and ofcourse for being more rational than her deeply spiritual and one heck of a staunch Baba following mother!
October 30, 2015
A delightful and thought provoking read.A lovely testimony of spiritual living and parenting. Profound experiences narrated with sincerity, earnestness and above all with great humor. I recommend this to all those looking to have soulful conversations with their young ones and teach them great concepts in an endearing way to young and inquisitive minds. Spiritual reading at its entertaining best!
March 19, 2015
Lom's book is a great read for being spiritual, yet practical, serious yet witty, specific yet universal . It is a touching encounter of a mum with the difficulties of raising a child, Kyra following the legacy of her beloved Swami. I would definitely recommend this book to everybody living abroad or not, raising a child or not, Indian or not, spiritual or not...;)). <3
August 8, 2015
Visa, Stickers and other Matters of the Soul
Great book! Unputdownable! Looking forward to the next one by Lom Harshni already.
Great book! Unputdownable! Looking forward to the next one by Lom Harshni already.
August 7, 2015
I am still a student but really liked the book. I found the incidents in the book very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews