Veena Pillay would like to say mountain climbing or skydiving gives her a adrenaline rush, but what gets her excited is walking through a bookshop.
“I did zip-line and take a microlight flight once, but a visit to the bookshop is what got my adrenaline pumping,” said Pillay, who recently released her debut novel, A Bend in the Road. It was published by Krest Publishers.
Pillay, who lives with her husband and their “bossy” Yorkie in uMhlanga, said she grew up in Verulam in the 1970s and 1980s.
“After school, I studied science at the University of Durban-Westville. After completing my Master's and PhD in physiology, I lectured for a while. I then gave it up to raise our two daughters. I have a supportive family, who are also quite opinionated. Their love, humour, advice and input has been invaluable during the writing of this book,” said Pillay.
She added that after her daughters grew up and left home to study, she had a lot of time on her hands.
“I always enjoyed making up stories even as a child, to tell to my friends. Later I made up bedtime stories for my children. So it seemed natural to write a story. The idea for my book came about while reminiscing about my childhood and my hometown.
“I often find myself thinking about my playmates from primary school and the games we played. One of which involved us running home as fast as we could and leaving the slowest runner behind. It seems cruel when I think back but that is how the idea for my book evolved.
"I thought, ‘what if four best friends were running home as part of a game and the slowest girl disappeared’? How would it impact the lives of her friends, her family and the town itself? And why and how would the girl disappear?'
“I drew inspiration from the people I encountered while growing up; from the schools I attended and the friends I had. Although the book is a complete work of fiction, I’m sure most people reading it will find many of the characters quite familiar. I believe that every little town is unique and yet they have so much in common. We can all relate to a small town and its characters at some level.”
Pillay added that reading played a significant role in the things she valued in life.
“I feel particularly strongly about social justice, women’s rights, gender rights and freedom of speech. So my views influenced the way the characters and story developed. I doubt I deliberately set out to do this but I think as a writer, one subconsciously puts a lot of oneself into some of the characters one creates.”
Her book is about four young girls, who are best friends, and the impact the disappearance of one of them has on the lives of the other three.
“Shy, beautiful Meena has vanished. In the aftermath of her disappearance, bold and confident Rajni finds her perfect life slowly unravelling. The brilliant and angry Mala discovers a shocking family secret and feisty but friendly Arthi begins to question the injustices of tradition as she enters her teen years. But what has become of Meena? As the story unravels, we meet other, often complex, characters that impact the lives of these girls.
“As genres go, this story will probably fall into the ‘coming-of-age mystery’ category. But this story is much more than a coming-of-age mystery. It also tells of the darker underbelly of a seemingly perfect little town. Of the injustices, prejudices, cruelty, abuse and hypocrisy that lived unquestioned alongside the moral and religious traditions. At the same time, the story celebrates the exuberance of childhood and the warm sense of community that existed in little towns in the 1970s.”
Pillay said that the first draft of the story took six weeks to write but she then shelved the manuscript for 10 years following the death of her mother.
“She knew of my love of making up stories and had encouraged me to write. After reading my first draft, she used to ask me to send it off for publication. She was part of the joy of writing this story, so I couldn’t bear thinking about it after her loss. But 10 years later, I revisited it, edited it and sent it off for publication."
Pillay added that the most challenging aspect of writing this story was to ensure that each of her four protagonists, who are also first-person narrators, were given different personalities and voices.
“Given that they are four young girls from the same little town attending the same school, that was not an easy feat to accomplish.”
The book is available countrywide at Bargain Books, Exclusive Books, Amazon/Kindle and the Krest Publishers website. The book launch will take place on August 31 at 2pm at the Verulam Regional Hospice.
“This is an exciting launch for me, in my hometown. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the sales on the day will go to the hospice.
She is currently writing her second adult fiction.
“It is a different type of book, a psychological fiction with a hint of gothic. I hope to complete the book by the end of the year.”