uMhlanga author reflects on roads travelled from her childhood
The story is told from the perspective of four young girls who are best friends and protagonists. Meena is a gentle, kind and timid girl who goes missing after school one day. Her disappearance has a huge impact on the lives of her friends.
GROWING up, Veena Pillay always loved reading and making up stories which she would then relay to her friends in a rather entertaining way.
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Little did she realise that her love for reading and storytelling would one day turn her into a published author.
The uMhlanga resident recently launched her first book, A Bend in the Road, accepted for publication by the multi-award-winning Krest Publishers. It is now available in bookstores countrywide and on Amazon and Amazon Kindle.
“I grew up in Verulam, a little town on the KZN North Coast, in the 1970s and 1980s. I had a happy and safe childhood with parents who encouraged us to form our own opinions regarding politics, religion and traditions,” said Pillay.
After school, she studied science at UDW (now UKZN) and obtained a PhD in Physiology. She then married her high school sweetheart, had two daughters, lectured for a while, and then gave it up to stay at home and raise her children.
Pillay says writing and publishing a book has encouraged her to listen more carefully to the stories of others.
“I didn’t think of actually writing a book until I had a lot of time on my hands. My children were grown up, and I began looking at ways to occupy myself. I joined a writers’ group and a book club. I did little bits of writing and enjoyed it. I guess that was the beginning of wanting to write more,” added Pillay.
The author said she often reminisces about the past and her hometown, and in recalling her childhood, she noticed that most tend to remember the happy moments and forget, or gloss over, the darker aspects of life growing up in a little town.
“I recalled a game I played with my friends in primary school. While returning home from school, one of us would shout out ‘run’, and we’d all run as fast as we could, leaving the slowest girl behind. She was always left behind. I think, today, this would be called bullying, but as kids, we thought it funny. I thought about what would have happened if that slowest girl went missing? How would we have felt? How and why would she have gone missing? That is how I got the idea for my book. I think it is also important to recall past prejudices, cruelty, abuse and hypocrisy. This book does just that, through the eyes of four young girls,” she said.
Rajni, a privileged, confident and self-centred girl, finds her world unravelling as she enters her teens. Arthi, a friendly but feisty girl, begins to develop insights into the injustices of tradition.
Mala, brilliant, rebellious and distant, discovers a shocking family secret. The mystery of what became of Meena is gradually revealed as the story unfolds.
“I am currently writing my next book, a very different story. Hopefully, I’ll have another book out next year,” said Pillay.
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