Enlightened by dinner in the dark
T HE KwaZuluNatal Blind and Deaf Society celebrated its 75th anniversary with a swanky Dinner in the Dark event at Coastlands Hotel in Umhlanga on Saturday night.
I have to admit that I didn’t really expect to have to eat in the dark. However, starters, as well as an auction, entertainment in the form of an audio drama, and musical items were all performed in the dark.
The Budhai family of Hillcrest bid R12 500 on a painting they had not even seen; it was, of course, the principle of the matter that attracted them to it.
The darkness didn’t stop from me finding the Ferrero Rocher on my side plate, but I was a bit reluctant to tuck into the starter without seeing it. Many guests sniffed and felt their food, while others decided to dig in with a fork and hope for the best.
It turned out to be mozzarella, tomato and aubergine – not too bad after all.
The winner of the evening had to be the audio drama Blind Date, written by Nad Ramsarup, head of the School for the KZN Blind and Deaf Society, and produced by Lotus FM’s Raeesa Mohammed.
Duets by Jody Naidoo and Alicia Solomon were also noteworthy.
Their voices were the signal for the lights to be switched on and dinner – a buffet – to be served.
With 75 years of history there were many milestones and many names to be mentioned; a few I picked up on were teacher R R Pillay, president K R Sitaram, chairman H B Singh, Justice Zakeria Yacoob of the Constitutional Court, Praveena Sukraj-Ely of the Justice Department, Siva Moodley of the Disability Unit at Unisa, who all hold doctoral degrees, Jace Nair, the first black person to head the South African National Council of the Blind, and Bruno Druschen, who heads DeafSA.
A sense of humour in the face of adversity is one of the traits I most admire, and I was happy to have met the organisation’s many courageous members.