TOOT FOR TIME OF THE WRITER
EVERYTHING Tootie touches takes off. When other 10-year-olds were playing Pac-man, he was turning a tidy profit selling cheap plastic dolls on the pavement outside my beloved Bangladesh Market in Chatsworth.
He also had a lot of fun in the evening dressing up the ones that were not sold.
The shy Radhi flicked her blonde-streaked fringe out of her eyes. Her nephew was one-of-akind. Nowadays, he is rolling in the Benjamins with factories on Sunset Avenue and Riverhorse Valley. He boasts houses in La Lucia and Crete which are full public access on Instagram. “But you can’t get one R10 from him even for a temple donation,” she sighed as her book club ladies murmured.
“Fabulously wealthy but tight as a sphincter,” teacher Parvathy stage-whispered.
The piping-hot potato samoosas came straight out of the kitchen of the Tudor Conference Centre. With it being Lent, the menu was strictly vegetarian. Not that Ambika minded. For a year now, she has been vegan.
Jay-z and Beyoncé punting veganism has nothing to do with her lifestyle choices but the ladies all jealously remark that she is the picture of health and confidence.
They have a rule that no-one talks health or husbands at book club. Anal-retentive nephews are an exception. The main agenda is the event of the year for bibliophiles – the UKZN Centre for Creative Arts’ Time of the Writer (TWO).
The 22nd annual event is scheduled for March 13-16 and celebrates Durban as a Unesco City of Literature. The publicity material gushes, “TOW 2019 offers a fourday festival that allows audiences, budding authors and literature lovers a chance to encounter some of South Africa’s most notable writers in some wonderfully curated up close and personal encounters”.
Neela is ecstatic that no fewer than three of her friends have poems in Drumbeats from Africa – Writings of Women of Africa which will be launched at the festival. The musthave volume is edited by acclaimed authors Zainab Priya Dala, Sylvia Garib and Kripa Devar. It is locally published by Micromega and is guaranteed to fly off the shelves.
Tootie is flying in first class from his diving trip to the Galapagos. He wants only to be seen at opening night. The thing is that he does not have an invitation.
A paunchy bald man in a ruffled Jacquemus shirt is not likely to pass for Radhika Maharaj but desperation has no shame.