For Neeta

Dr Deena Padayachee
    A writer is nothing without a hand.
    A thinker is nothing without a voice, without a pen,
    I am nothing without you.

    You are closer to me
    Than my intima is to my artery.

    You are my ink, my pen, my blood, my hand, my heart.
    You are the blood in my eyes,
    The texture of my skin,
    The air in my lungs,
    The sweetness on my tongue.

    You loved me more than anything that I have ever known.
    You made me come alive like the light in the darkness of a surreal dawn.

    You made the night iridiscent with the softness of your voice.
    Your passion ignited my life,
    Your love made my steps lighter.
    Your elixir of empathy
    Made possible this poem,
    My darling Neeta.


    Note:
    1.  Dr Deena Padayachee is a descendant of indentured sugar cane farm labourers. He was the first winner of the Nadine Gordimer Prize (Congress of South African Writers) in 1991. He is the only medical doctor to have won theOlive Schreiner Prize (English Academy of Southern Africa). That was in 1994. He was a winner of the Fay Goldie and the Quill Awards from the South African Writers' Circle for his prose. He received an Award from the Grahamstown Eisteddfod for Original Writing in 1985.
    2.  Over the years, our native of Durban has been invited to address literary gatherings in Durban (the UKZN Alumni Association and the South African Writers' Circle), Johannesburg (Arts Alive - 1994), Pretoria (Dept of Arts and Culture - 2006), Mysore, Trondheim, the British Consulate in Mauritius, the Mauritian Writer's Association, the Teacher's College of Mauritius, the University of Durban Westville, the University of Tuebingen, the University of Copenhagen, and the State University of Louisiana on his contribution to South Africa's literary works.
    3.  This Natal University graduate has been anthologised in a host of tomes, including The Omnibus of South African short stories, Reader's Digest's Best South African short stories, the University of Cambridge's Writing from South Africa and the World Anthology of Love Poetry.He has been published extensively in the USA, India, Canada, Denmark, the UK and Australia. His prose has been translated into Tamil and Hindi and his short stories have been dramatised for the stage and radio. 
    4.  This South African's book of short stories,'What's Love got to do with it?' was prescribed for matrics in KZN in 2004/2005.
    5.  Our medical doctor wrote a monthly Column called 'Under the Skin' for the Sunday Times Extra till 2008. 
    6.  He is Publication Relations Officer of the South African Writers' Circle, an executive member of the Live Poets' Society and a Rotarian.
    
Dr Deena Padayachee - Dr Deena Padayachee is a descendant of indentured sugar cane farm labourers. He was the first winner of the Nadine Gordimer Prize (Congress of South African Writers) in 1991. He is the only medical doctor to have won theOlive Schreiner Prize (English Academy of Southern Africa). That was in 1994. He was a winner of the Fay Goldie and the Quill Awards from the South African Writers' Circle for his prose. He received an Award from the Grahamstown Eisteddfod for Original Writing in 1985.
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