Never mind your losses, your heartbreak, your fears, your bitterness, your sad state of affairs. Never mind the lies, the deceit, the lost opportunities, the unspoken words and the unsung songs. Never mind the arguments, the spiteful words, the secrets, the whispered words, the patriarchy, the broken childhood, the stunted […]
Writing is like designing houses in people’s minds. They walk around your corridors, down the stairs you lead them, into the cellar where the floor is dark and wet. They climb up and explore the attic that you weren’t even aware of in the plans. They sit in your kitchen and […]
A few nights ago I was walking along Durban’s beachfront promenade with a group of friends. We were reminiscing about the annual surfing event; the Gunston July, a highlight on our then teenage social calendar, recalling how we prepared our outfits months before hand so that we could walk along […]
Where are all the real people in the world? Real people with real words. When did we empty words of their meaning? When did words lose value? When did they become as worthless as Chinese toys – to be used and thrown away quickly? To be replaced by other fresh […]
I never thought I was going to be a writer. And it was mainly because of one reason: my hair. You see I’ve inherited my mother’s fine hair and I’ve always believed good writers, particularly good Asian female writers must have a head full of healthy hair to be taken […]
Add caption (Originally published in O, the Oprah magazine, October 2011)
Everyone assured me it was probably something small when the Canadian embassy phoned me 4 days before my flight to call me for an interview. ‘Probably procedure’, ‘Can’t be anything bad’, ‘Tell them you have a job,’ was the advice passed on to me from various family members when I […]
It was a raining day today. And I was moody. And nothing was right with the world. And my heart felt like some ripe almost-rotten fruit that wanted to burst through my chest. And I didn’t hear what people said. I heard the windscreen wipers wipe the screen. And the […]
Sometimes all I want is to be alone. In a space for me. In a room. Quiet. So that my thoughts can uncrumple and unfold and unravel, crawl out of my brain, out the window into some wild dead forest where all tired things can lie down in the leaves […]
(Originally published in O, the Oprah magazine, January 2010)
