Ms Ishara Pillay of Standerton writes a work of fiction about the pandemic
“One of the positive things however, that came out of Covid-19 is that immediate families were brought closer to one another,” she said.
A teacher of Standerton with more than 30 years experience has written a book that will soon be hot off the press.
The book is called ‘2020’ and tells the story of the impact of Covid-19 on ordinary people.
“I wanted to cover everything that had happened,” Ms Ishara Pillay said.
Ms Pillay, a foundation phase teacher, is currently teaching at Standerton Primary School where she has taught since 2010.
Hailing from KwaZulu-Natal, she married in 1990 and moved to Standerton, where she taught at Stanwest Combined School.
Her husband, Kay works at the Seriti-mine just outside town and the couple has two children, a daughter and son.
Prishen the son, is studying at the University of Pretoria for a B.Com and Priyanka the daughter, has completed her B.Ed and is now a lecturer at Gert Sibande College in town.
Both the children of this close-knit family were at home last year and for Ishara, one of the negative things of the pandemic was not being able to be near other loved ones.
“One of the positive things however, that came out of Covid-19 is that immediate families were brought closer to one another,” she said.
“My children were at home and we bonded and supported one another.”
Ishara is a foundation phase teacher.
“I prefer working with the little ones,” she also said.
She is a firm believer that children’s formative years at school should be properly and correctly grounded.
She is at the moment in charge of a class with 23 young ones and online teaching last year, proved to be somewhat difficult to get fully used to.
This avid reader’s decision to write a book of between 250 to 255 pages began in June last year.
“I began writing the story and worked my way out.”
It is a work of fiction, based on factual events, and once it was completed, she contacted a friend who had published two books, and the name of a publisher was recommended.
Without targeting a specific market, the novel came into being.
“I never really thought about the readers as such and only wanted to cover everything that had happened in 2020.”
Ishara rates a reading culture to be of extreme importance.
“I grew up in a family that loved reading and instilled a love for reading in my children as well.
“Reading is my passion.”
She reads rather indiscriminately, covering a wide range of genres such as romance, thrillers and self-help books.
The Pillays managed to squeeze in an overseas visit a year before the pandemic broke and went to Europe and toured the continent.
This Hindu-family considers their faith and family to be of utmost importance.
The publisher has decided on a conservative run of 150 copies for starters and no doubt the family would also turn into literary critics.
“It’s all very new to me,” the writer said in conclusion.
